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American Morning

NASCAR Driver Ward Burton Celebrating Biggest Victory of His Career

Aired February 18, 2002 - 08:52   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: It is the Super Bowl of stock car racing, the Daytona 500. Last year, of course, it was marred by the death of racing legend Dale Earnhardt. This morning, NASCAR driver Ward Burton is celebrating the biggest victory of his career. Burton took the checkered flag yesterday in a race that featured a bizarre finish.

And the man who made it to the winner's circle, Ward Burton, joins us now from Daytona Beach, Florida.

Congratulations. How do you feel this morning?

WARD BURTON, DAYTONA 500 WINNER: I feel great. Haven't had quite enough sleep, but it's a very gratifying feeling, you know, all the team, all the work that everybody's done to get us here.

COOPER: It was your first victory of the Daytona 500. Tell us a little bit about the race for you. How did the race go?

BURTON: We kept our nose clean. That was the main thing that we had to do. Our mental imagery of the morning, of the day, as we were racing is that we got to finish first. We didn't do a lot of blocking. We tried to race everybody clean. Tried to get in position to maybe have a shot at the end of the race. At the end of the race, things started to happen, unfold, on our behalf. So we had some luck to go along with it.

COOPER: With about six laps to go, there was this big pileup. What did that look like from your perspective?

BURTON: That was in the rearview mirror. I saw the 15 car sliding down first, where he got hit. Then the rest of it, I really couldn't tell. The big point where we dodged a bullet is when the 29 car blocked the 24 car, we missed the 29 car. That was awful close. That was right before midway, or about midway, so that was really the one that we dodged.

COOPER: You said very close, well how close are you talking?

BURTON: I'm talking about like this. I mean, I turned hard left, got my car sideways, he went right by my nose, couldn't have been anymore than a foot or so. Actually, had we not got sideways and made the car shorter, we'd have been in a wreck, probably hitting the wall pretty hard, so that was the one that we got lucky on.

COOPER: Did you go into this race thinking you could possibly win?

BURTON: You know, this race last year, we led the most laps. We had the best car without question. Yesterday, the guys, my crew chief, Tommy, all those guys, had good strategy, we had some luck, we kept our nose clean. We might not have had the fastest car, but we were in the right place to capitalize on it when we needed to.

COOPER: Since last year's race, since the death of Dale Earnhardt at the race last year, there's been a lot of talk about safety, and some new safety requirements, and new neck and head restraints. Did they make a difference for you?

BURTON: I feel like NASCAR done a great job of bringing the safety issue to the forefront, bringing specialists in that have taught all of us how to be smarter with the cockpit area. At the same time, individual teams like my team have worked really hard to make our seats, our head restraints, our creature comfort area, as we call it, more safer, and just about everybody in everyone of those cars is a lot safer this year than we were down here last year, and it came from a lot of NASCAR's judgments, NASCAR's getting involved with the issue, and it came from a lot of other people from the individual teams working real hard, too.

COOPER: It seems like this sport is getting younger and younger, as the years go by, and a couple people are looking at retirement this year. Does this seem like a younger sport to you?

BURTON: It's happened real quick. It's happened really quick. You know, there are more good teams then it was when I started. These young guys coming up now, they're getting into the best-funded teams, the best support group teams there are out there, so they're not having to go through the learning process a lot of us went through when we started with teams that just didn't have the finances and support group to run well, but certainly, down the road, there's going to be guys, you got your young bunch, but I think there will always be people in their 40s, and their mid-40s, that can run with those young guys too.

COOPER: Probably my last question, the reward, $1.3 million, what are you going to do with the money? And if you tell me you're going to go to Disney World, I won't believe you.

BURTON: No, I wouldn't tell you that. I don't know what we're going to do with that. You know, I hadn't really thought about it. Really happy for the team. Everybody on our team has made a lot of sacrifices. Their families made a lot of sacrifices. We're going to take care of all those guys, and maybe we'll buy a little land with some of the money left over.

COOPER: Ward Burton, congratulations, it was an amazing race. A lot of hard work, and it paid off. Thank you for being with us.

BURTON: OK, thank you so much. COOPER: All right, bye-bye.

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