BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
SHARPIE 500
"We just need to be smart this weekend. We need to go out there and put a
good lap on the board right off the truck and then build on it from there.
We need to come out of this weekend with another good run, gain some more
points and keep the car and driver in one piece. If we do all those things,
we will have had a successful weekend at Bristol."
- Frank Stoddard, crew chief of #22 Caterpillar Dodge
Stoddard's thoughts on last weekend's performance.
"I'm very proud of the entire team and of Ward. Ward drove a great race and
the whole team did a great job working on getting the car to his liking. I
feel like we had a lot better car then what we finished, but we got some
nose damage and the car just got too tight there at the end. But, I feel
really good about where we were last weekend compared to our first trip to
Michigan this year. We made a lot of headway, we just need to keep
digging."
Cat equipment for the Sharpie 500.
"We're taking the same car we ran at Bristol in the spring," said Stoddard.
"We had a very good car all weekend, but traffic was holding Ward up and he
and Robby Gordon got together coming off turn four. It's one of those deals
you hate to see happen, but those are the things that happen at Bristol. We
just need to be smarter and not get Ward into that kind of situation this
weekend."
Ward Burton and #22 test at Darlington Raceway.
"From what I can see so far, we are very competitive in the early stages of
testing," said Stoddard. "We made several changes this [Tuesday] morning
and about midmorning, we found a combination that was really working for
Ward. We had the car working real well on the short runs and I would say
that he was one of the fastest cars, but we haven't had the opportunity to
make a long run yet. Once we make our long run, we will definitely know how
we'll stack up for the race. He is very good at Darlington and we certainly
want to go there and run well."
