WARD BURTON -22- MBNA Grand Prix - Qualified 1st
I'm not sure what happened to Jeff (Burton). He was a little bit stronger in practice. This was the first time Bill Davis and I were able to test anywhere but Daytona. We didn't do any testing last year, and it's paid off. It helped us a lot to know where we've been this year.
I got in the throttle and drove it pretty deep in one. I got loose all the way through two, but wasn't loose enough where I had to back off. It was a good turning loose, a fast loose. Three and four were pretty uneventful. I bottomed out a little bit on the bottom of the track at the very exit of four. I really didn't think the lap was that fast. I figured it was about a .50 or a .60 I knew I had pretty much gotten everything out of it. I knew I had done my job. They give me a good car, and they must have tuned my motor a little bit" If I don't get a little bit faster, from practice to qualifying, I'm a little bit disappointed in myself with the decisions we made on the car. We had ourselves this morning at a .40. NASCAR had us at .60s and 70s. You always pump yourself up for qualifying to hold on and try to get everything out of it. There's no question the tires are what's making the speeds pickup here. I think you're going to see a pretty interesting race once people get 3\25 to 35 laps on their tires here. We tested here last week, and after 25 laps you're holding on. That's when you'll see the setups really come in. if we have to make long green runs, anything over 40 laps, there's going to a lot of slipping and sliding going on. I still think we've got a lot of room to improve (the new Pontiac). Everybody knows we were a little behind on the development. I'm not saying that was anybody's fault. That's just the way it was. Last year our car had some front downforce and not a lot in the rear. That helped the car turn for me. A lot of people complained about getting traction on the tires we were running last year. A lot of times we had loose conditions,and I feel like that gave me and the tea, a kit bit of an advantage. The new Pontiac doesn't have any front downforce, and it's got some rear. That means tight. That's giving the front of the car some lift. We've got soft tires, and that means tight, too. Everywhere we've been, we've been too tight on the race track. We can't get the car turning, and can't get the nose pointed where I can get on the gas quick. That's why we came down here and tested to learn what kind of changes we need to start making before we get to the track and what changes we need to make once we get to a track.
