Food City 500 - Ward Burton Notes

Ward Burton will make his 327th NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series start when the green flag drops for the Food City 500 Sunday.

BURTON ON BRISTOL."It's hard to pass at Bristol, so track position is really important. It's hard to come from the back, so we need to get a good qualifying lap in and our NetZero Racing pit crew needs to be as good this week as they were last week in Darlington. The most important thing you can do to be successful at short-tracks like Bristol is just stay out of trouble. You can do a bit if beating and banging and not worry so much about screwing up the aerodynamics at a place like Bristol, but you watch, nine times out of 10, the guy that wins will still be the guy whose car barely has a scratch on it. That's where the importance of the spotter comes in at a place like this. Not only do they need to be watching what's going on directly around the car they're spotting for, but also around the whole track. There's less time to respond to incidents on short tracks, which is why you depend on them so much and why seemingly small accidents sometimes turn into something much bigger. Bristol is a great track to race on and most everyone looks forward to getting there. No doubt the fans love Bristol too, and that's why we're here."

BRISTOL NOTES OF INTEREST