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Burton's team shows value of perseverance

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 30, 2001

Jeff Burton is not a Winston Cup title contender, but he believes the No. 99 Ford team showed its championship mettle during an unexpectedly difficult season.

No one gave up.

"We're not quitters," said Burton, whose win Sunday in the Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix ended a five-month drought. "I'm proud of everyone on our team because a lot of teams wouldn't have held up to what we've been through.

"There would have been a lot of fighting amongst themselves. There would have been a lot of finger pointing. For the most part, we've not had that."

Burton struggled to adapt to the harder, more durable tire compound Goodyear introduced this season. Because he was unable to "feel" the car, Burton could not tell crew chief Frankie Stoddard how to make it better.

Burton finished 30th or worse in four of the first six races to rank 36th in the Winston Cup standings. The team hoped a victory at Charlotte in May signaled the turning point, but it didn't. The next week at Dover, he was 31st.

"The sign of a person's integrity and a person's true character is when things aren't going well," Burton said. "That's when you find out who is tough and who is committed to the program.

"To the man, I don't know of anyone on my team that I've been disappointed with in our effort this year. The effort has been awesome, but our results haven't been good."

Finally, during the past month, Burton began to get a feel for the tire. The results were immediate: consecutive top-five finishes at Charlotte, Martinsville and Talladega, then the victory at Phoenix.

"No crew chief, no engineer, no anybody can make these cars run well if the driver can't look them in the eye and tell them what's wrong," Burton said.

"I feel normal now. We went to test at Homestead and on the fifth lap I said, "This is what's wrong with the car. This is the problem.' At Martinsville I could tell you what the problem was. It's been more like that lately."

With four races remaining, a top-10 points finish that once seemed out of reach is looking probable. Burton is 10th in the standings, 44 behind Kevin Harvick and 171 ahead of Mark Martin.

"To knock off three top-fives in a row and then to get a win (Sunday) really shows the character of our team and the heart of our team," Burton said. "I kept telling everybody that we aren't quitters and this is an example of that."

DON'T WAKE HIM: Gil de Ferran was a consistent middle-of-the-pack driver until he signed two years ago with Penske Racing. Sunday, he celebrated a repeat CART championship.

"All I can think is I'm a very fortunate person to be driving for a guy like Roger and a team like we have," de Ferran said. "I've been living in a dream since I joined the team two years ago. My life has been wonderful from a personal and professional standpoint."

FICKLE FINISH: For the third time this season, Rusty Wallace had the strongest car in the field but did not win. Wallace, who led 91 laps Sunday, was in the lead when he cut a right front tire.

"It's disappointing to say the least," said Wallace, who came from a lap down to finish 15th. "To have a strong car like that, the strongest thing out there, and get bit by a tire deal, it really hurt. It's a shame because we had a car that could have won the thing."

IT'S A SECRET: Knowing he had a chance to win in the No. 12 Ford, Mike Wallace radioed to his crew chief to inquire about strategy for the team's final pit stop.

"I asked Peter Sospenzo what we were going to do and he said, "I'll tell you when you enter the box,' " Wallace said. "He wasn't letting anybody know, and it was a great call. That got us the track position we needed."

Sospenzo instructed his crew to change two tires when most of the leaders changed four. Wallace was first off pit road and, though unable to hold off Burton, finished a career-best second.

-- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.

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