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Ward Burton
Guest
MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Ward Burton addressed the media last week at Lowe's Motor Speedway with information that his eight-plus year partnership with Bill Davis Racing would come to an end following the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
Eight days later he addressed the media again, this time to discuss BDR's best qualifying effort of the year.
Do they really want to break this up?
"It's emotional, but it's something that didn't start yesterday," said Burton, who will start second, alongside pole-winner Jeff Gordon in Sunday's event. "It's been coming since I came to the media in August.
"When I received a paper from BDR, I knew then that our time together was not going to be as long as we thought. I don't have control over it. I tried to fix it, make it better, and I don't think I could. Without going into details, I think it's best for everyone just to move on."
Next week at Atlanta, Burton will make his first start for Haas/CNC Racing, making him the fourth different driver to pilot the No. 0 Pontiac in 2003. He'll drive the ride full-time in 2004.
"I don't like a lot of change in my life, I like to stay the same," Burton said. "This is most change I've ever experienced in my life. It's been very stressful but we're going to get through it."
Runs like Friday's help. Drastically.
Burton has used six provisional starting passes in 2003, including one in each of the past two events. His best finish, sixth, came at Watkins Glen in August. He hasn't finished better than 13th since. Six times, he's finished 30th or worse.
And that doesn't even include the DaimlerChrysler drama.
Obviously, going out with a win Sunday would be a mammoth achievement. He's finished third and fifth, respectively, in this event over the past two seasons.
"It would be great to win," Burton said. "We've been good for each other. We've had some triumphant times and some trying times. We're in the middle of some trying times right now, but will work hard to do the best we can Sunday."
