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Darlington rain gives Burton
a chance to talk about Bristol
Washout sets race lineups set by points
By DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer
DARLINGTON, S.C. - NASCAR is giving the drought a weekend off in South Carolina's Pee Dee region, so nothing happened Friday at Darlington Raceway to turn attention away from week-old Bristol resentments.
Qualifying for Sunday's Southern 500 was canceled because of daylong rain, putting points leader Sterling Marlin on the pole in a field set by the NASCAR rulebook. Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson will join Marlin in the top five.
Ward Burton, who has finished second, sixth and first in the Southern 500 in the past three years, will start 29th. He'll also be trying to bounce back from a tough night at Bristol a week ago, where he finished 37th after being - at least in his mind - knocked out of the Sharpie 500 by Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The contact from Earnhardt Jr.'s Chevrolet angered Burton in that race to the point that Burton climbed from his Dodge, waited for Earnhardt Jr. to come back around the track and then hurled the heat shields from his shoes at the No. 8 Chevrolet.
Burton's actions drew a $5,000 fine from NASCAR on Thursday. By Friday, he still had some lingering feelings about it.
"We're trained in this country to seek justice," Burton said when asked about the possibility of retaliation for his or any of the other incidents that took place at Bristol. "I will be honest with you, I've thought about it. I've had time to think about it all week and that single word - justice - comes to my mind every time.
"But you all know as well as I do that if I go to seek justice on Sunday what's going to happen to the 22 car. I have to try to leave what happened last weekend in the past."
As of early Friday afternoon, Burton said he hadn't talked to Earnhardt Jr. about the Birstol matter. That's because Earnhardt Jr. hadn't called him.
"I feel it's his place to open up the dialogue," Burton said. "I will give you an example of something that happened with Dale's daddy at Talladega back three or four years ago. I instigated a big crash and it was my fault. There was like an 18- or 20-car crash. I was on the phone Sunday night to Richard Childress and I called Dale on Tuesday and acknowledged it was my fault and to see how he was doing.
"When I wrecked Johnny Benson here two years ago, I didn't mean to hit him. He and his crew chief were mad about it. I talked to them both the following week and they were still mad. I couldn't blame them. But that's the way I handled it. Dale has to handle this the way he thinks he ought to."
Burton said he deserved the fine from NASCAR because he walked up toward the racing groove to launch his heat shields. He also regrets one of the comments he made in the interviews following the incident, having said he wished he had a gun so he could "shoot" through Earnhardt Jr.'s car.
"I did say one word I shouldn't have said and I didn't mean it the way it sounded," Burton said. "It's tough right in the middle of it to handle things correctly.
"It doesn't matter whether you're a race car driver or doing anything else, the experiences that you have obviously there a lot of times you learn from them and wish you could go back and handle them differently.
"I think as much as the sport has grown in just the past couple of years, there are a lot people riding in that race car with me. It's not just the 140 guys who work on my car. It's my family, our sponsors, the media - everybody who makes this sport go on a weekly basis - is riding in that car.
You're going to see the best and the worst of our emotions come out, particularly as big as this business has got. Sometimes in the heat of battle, if you could go back and have time to reflect on it and react differently, you would. ... But I can't."
a chance to talk about Bristol
Washout sets race lineups set by points
By DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer
DARLINGTON, S.C. - NASCAR is giving the drought a weekend off in South Carolina's Pee Dee region, so nothing happened Friday at Darlington Raceway to turn attention away from week-old Bristol resentments.
Qualifying for Sunday's Southern 500 was canceled because of daylong rain, putting points leader Sterling Marlin on the pole in a field set by the NASCAR rulebook. Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson will join Marlin in the top five.
Ward Burton, who has finished second, sixth and first in the Southern 500 in the past three years, will start 29th. He'll also be trying to bounce back from a tough night at Bristol a week ago, where he finished 37th after being - at least in his mind - knocked out of the Sharpie 500 by Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The contact from Earnhardt Jr.'s Chevrolet angered Burton in that race to the point that Burton climbed from his Dodge, waited for Earnhardt Jr. to come back around the track and then hurled the heat shields from his shoes at the No. 8 Chevrolet.
Burton's actions drew a $5,000 fine from NASCAR on Thursday. By Friday, he still had some lingering feelings about it.
"We're trained in this country to seek justice," Burton said when asked about the possibility of retaliation for his or any of the other incidents that took place at Bristol. "I will be honest with you, I've thought about it. I've had time to think about it all week and that single word - justice - comes to my mind every time.
"But you all know as well as I do that if I go to seek justice on Sunday what's going to happen to the 22 car. I have to try to leave what happened last weekend in the past."
As of early Friday afternoon, Burton said he hadn't talked to Earnhardt Jr. about the Birstol matter. That's because Earnhardt Jr. hadn't called him.
"I feel it's his place to open up the dialogue," Burton said. "I will give you an example of something that happened with Dale's daddy at Talladega back three or four years ago. I instigated a big crash and it was my fault. There was like an 18- or 20-car crash. I was on the phone Sunday night to Richard Childress and I called Dale on Tuesday and acknowledged it was my fault and to see how he was doing.
"When I wrecked Johnny Benson here two years ago, I didn't mean to hit him. He and his crew chief were mad about it. I talked to them both the following week and they were still mad. I couldn't blame them. But that's the way I handled it. Dale has to handle this the way he thinks he ought to."
Burton said he deserved the fine from NASCAR because he walked up toward the racing groove to launch his heat shields. He also regrets one of the comments he made in the interviews following the incident, having said he wished he had a gun so he could "shoot" through Earnhardt Jr.'s car.
"I did say one word I shouldn't have said and I didn't mean it the way it sounded," Burton said. "It's tough right in the middle of it to handle things correctly.
"It doesn't matter whether you're a race car driver or doing anything else, the experiences that you have obviously there a lot of times you learn from them and wish you could go back and handle them differently.
"I think as much as the sport has grown in just the past couple of years, there are a lot people riding in that race car with me. It's not just the 140 guys who work on my car. It's my family, our sponsors, the media - everybody who makes this sport go on a weekly basis - is riding in that car.
You're going to see the best and the worst of our emotions come out, particularly as big as this business has got. Sometimes in the heat of battle, if you could go back and have time to reflect on it and react differently, you would. ... But I can't."
