Bristol is survival race - Ward Burton quotes

"Bristol isn't like any other short track we race at. It's a like racing in a fish bowl for 500 laps. You never get a breather from racing the track. You never get to take your hands off the wheel. It is a physically and mentally challenging race track. You have got to survive it for 500 laps." Ward Burton, driver of the No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge

BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY FOOD CITY 500

BURTON ON BRISTOL

"It is a very different race track. The one thing you worry about is getting caught up in something that you couldn't control. You can have a really good car and just get collected and have your day is over that fast. You have to attack the track, but still be cautious all at the same time. We've had some pretty good runs here in the last couple of years. This race last year, we finished third and had a really good car all day. We're just hoping we can have that kind of run again this week.

"It will be real important to have a solid qualifying run here this weekend. First of all, you don't want to have to pit on the backstretch. You also don't want to have to start in the back because if it goes green for a little while, you could be in jeopardy of going a lap down early. With the track being so small, the field gets lined up single file and it just about wraps around the whole track. We'll really concentrate on our qualifying run on Friday and then hopefully dial our race set-up in the rest of the weekend."

BURTON ON THE POINTS RACE

"It's been a very strange year. There have been a lot of teams that have had problems that aren't even close to the top 10 yet, but the season is early and I look for people like Bobby Labonte to recover and get back in the hunt again. We got off to a slow start in the points race. We had a dominating car at Daytona, but got caught up in that wreck and our solid finish went out the window. Then, we had mediocre finishes the next two weeks and we're just now recovering from that. I believe we'll be back in the top 10 in a couple more weeks. We're only 45 points out of 10th place."

<pre> Year Event ST FIN Earnings Event ST FIN Earnings 2000 Food City 500 5 3 81,135 GoRacing.com 500 16 11 48,990 1999 Food City 500 38 9 49,265 Goody's 500 5 9 41,915 1998 Food City 500 39 17 29,740 Goody's 500 8 37 27,167 1997 Food City 500 35 18 17,240 Goody's 500 10 17 26,610 1996 Food City 500 12 33 24,785 Goody's 500 21 8 32,440 1995 Food City 500 35 21 10,380 Goody's 500 17 34 15,510 1994 Food City 500 21 25 8,585 Goody's 500 7 36 7,735

        Starts Wins Top Five Top 10 Poles Earnings
Spring     7    0       1       2     0   221,130 
Fall       7    0       0       2     0   200,367 
Total     14    0       1       4     0   421,497                         

2001 PERFORMANCE DATE EVENT START FINISH LC/TL STATUS EARNINGS PTS. Feb. 18 Daytona 10 33 173/200 Accident 165,019 33 Feb. 25 Rockingham 11 16 392/393 Running 74,495 25 March 4 Las Vegas 13 21 266/267 Running 95,410 26 Mar. 11 Atlanta 14 11 324/325 Running 74,425 21 Mar. 18 Darlington 21 12 293/293 Running 70,930 17

STARTS POLES WINS Top 5 Top 10 LC/TL % Complete Earnings 5 0 0 0 0 1448/1478 98% 480,279

CUMULATIVE RESULTS Races Wins 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6-10th Poles Outside Poles Money Won 219 2 5 3 3 2 42 6 7 9,919,898

-H. Stoddard