Checker Auto Parts 500 - Ward Burton Notes

Ward Burton will make his 356h NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series start when the green flag drops for the Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway Sunday afternoon.

BURTON ON PHOENIX."Phoenix is one of those places that everyone looks forward to going to. The weather is usually great, it's a nice track - a pretty flat, little one-mile oval - and the fans really enjoy having us out there. I've been saying it every week, but qualifying is really important here and even more so now that we saw what happened last week when some good teams went home. There are a lot of cars that show up to race every week now - some getting ready for next year and looking to have points to fall back on when we get to Daytona next year - and if you're not in the Top-20 in points, you can't depend on having a provisional to fall back on. Not only do you want to qualifying up front for obvious reasons - traffic, pit selection, etc., - but you have to think about the seriousness of the consequences if you don't these days. It's obviously not just a matter of having a less desirable pit anymore or having to race through more traffic, it's about getting to race at all and I think last week was a wake up call for a lot of people. Maybe not for the teams in the Chase or anything, but for those of us just outside the Top-25, it's something serious to think about."

PHOENIX NOTES OF INTEREST