Mark and Jeff Burton are company
men, loyal to their Rousch Racing teams and Ford Motor Co. That
said, the Checker Auto Parts/Dura-Lube 500k was a fairly good
race all around for the dynamic duo. Mark finished second, giving
Ford its 13th manufacturer's title. Burton came home fourth. Although
Burton never led a lap, it was nevertheless a job well done. The pair
were instrumental in locking down the manufacturer's title for Ford.
Burton was the highest-finishing driver in nine races, while Mark
was tops in seven events. Only Dale Jarrett scored more points
toward the title, finishing higher than any other Ford in 11 races.
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It was Mark's 17th top-five finish of the
year, but his first since running fourth Oct. 11 at Charlotte. Burton
now has 16 top fives, and two in a row after winning Oct 23 at Rockingham.
Mark had a couple of options on his setup package, but afterward
figured neither would've won him the race. "We had a setup yesterday
(in practice) that was real fast on fresh tires, but seemed to go
away," Mark said. "This setup was slower, and stayed on its tires.
We chose to go with this one, and it did just that. So I don't
think the other setup would've won the race for us, either. We had two
setups for this race. We had a faster setup yesterday, but with new
tires, it was better on the shorter runs. That setup wouldn't have
won today. Our setup today was slower, but worked better on the
long runs."
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With Tony Stewart setting a blistering
pace at the head of the field, Mark was hard-pressed to keep up.
"We had a great effort," said Mark, who had switched to a backup
ignition box during the race. "I'm thrilled with the performance. I'm
thrilled with the team and everything ran good. We just got beat.
I'm not crying about that. I mean, I thought it was a spectacular
performance for the whole Rousch team. "If the 20 car(Stewart) would have
had trouble today, we would have clobbered 'em. We were really working
well, but he clobbered us. Those guys were really hooked up.... If the
20 would have had trouble, we'd have been the car to beat, but they didn't.
They were the car to beat. You're gonna have days like that. Some
day's it's us, and most days, it's somebody else."
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Simply put, Stewart's Pontiac was just better
than Mark's Ford. That, and he was also trying to be cautious on tires he called
the best Goodyear had ever had at Phoenix. "It (Stewart's car) would
just go through the corners faster," Mark said. "It would turn
better, and it didn't get loose when it turned. When mine turned good,
it got loose. If it didn't get loose, it didn't turn good, but it
was pretty good. You can't win if you blow a right front out and
hit the wall. We're not counting points anymore, but we still
can't win if we blow a tire out. We had our eyes on it, but the
tires worked beautifully. "The tires were fantastic. The tires
worked great. I think it's the best tire they've ever had here
at Phoenix. They seemed to work real good." In the end, Mark figured
he'd gotten the best out of his car and the race he could have.
"I couldn't be more proud of the effort," Mark concluded. "This
was the best result we could get today. Tony Stewart's car
was better. It was really hooked up. We had a great car but couldn't
keep up. We could run well on the long runs, but we couldn't
get the tires to hook up right away at the start of a new run."
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T he next step is Homestead.
Mark, always a factor in inaugural races, is
looking forward to the first Winston Cup race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Mark has raced at the track four times in the Busch Grand National
Series. "The track has changed over the past four years," he said. "They
have made a lot of improvements since the first time I raced there in
1995. It is a much better track to race on now. I tested there in the
Busch car and was really pleased with our results. I don't know how much
of that will carry over to the Winston Cup car, but I'm sure the time I've
spent learning the track will help us. We seem to do well at new tracks."
Mark will pilot JR-52 at Homestead this weekend --
the same car that won at Dover in September, posted top-six finishes at
Charlotte and Rockingham last month, and took Mark to his first pole of
the year at The Rock. "I've always liked this car and it has always been
successful for us," Mark said. "I'm anxious to run it at Homestead and
Atlanta. I'd like to get another win at an inaugural event after I won Las
Vegas last year. It is always an honor to have your name in the record
books as being the first winner at a new track."
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