Where's Ward?

By Jerry Bonkowski, Yahoo! Sports
May 24, 2005


In just over three years, he's gone from the Daytona 500 winner to
a "whatever happened to" question.

But Ward Burton isn't ready to have his photo placed on a Missing
poster just yet. While he's enjoying his semi-forced retirement – he
wasn't able to find a quality team and car for 2005 – he hasn't
completely given up hope of returning to Nextel Cup racing.

"If the right opportunity presents itself, I'd love to get in it,"
Burton said this past weekend at the Nextel All-Star Challenge. "I
know I can do a good job on the track for a team and a good job for a
sponsor off the track. We'll see if that opportunity is there or
not."

Since his association with the No. 0 team went south near the end of
last season, Burton has had numerous calls and even some job offers
from several team owners in Nextel Cup, Busch and Craftsman Trucks.

But Burton is adamant that he won't accept just any offer. He doesn't
want to be a first-class driver on a second-class team. At 43, if he
comes back to Nextel Cup competition, Burton wants a lengthy deal
with a team that has solid financial backing and a bright future.

"I'm not going to go into it unless I believe in time – in working
with the right team, the right car owner and the right sponsor – that
we can get to where we need to get," he said. "Just to go out there
to run for the sake of running in some way is just so degrading that
it's not fun.

"I know there are no guarantees in this sport or anything else for
that matter. There are car owners out there with the right mentality,
and there are some out there for the wrong reasons. I want to be with
the ones that believe in racing."

While his fans wonder what he's up to, Burton takes a laid-back
approach to the future. Instead of racing, he spends much of his time
with his family and building his wildlife and conservation
foundation.

"I kind of feel I needed a little mental refreshment, some time to
smell the roses a little bit," Burton said. "But at the same time,
I've got a lot going on; I'm not sitting at home on a couch.

"I've always been real humbled by the support that I've gotten from
fans out there. Whether I race again or not, it'll always mean a lot
to me. The neat part about it is that they were there when I was
doing well in racing, and probably were there more when I wasn't."

The last two seasons fell in that latter category. After winning at
Daytona and again at Loudon in 2002, his relationship with team owner
Bill Davis fell apart the following year, leading to Burton's
departure from the team only 20 months after sipping champagne at
Daytona.

After leaving the Davis camp, Burton immediately hooked up with CNC
Racing. But just over a year later, he and CNC went their separate
ways with two races left last season. Burton finished the 2004
campaign a dismal 32nd in the standings and hasn't raced a Cup car
since.

Burton has been rumored to be among possible replacements if Joe
Gibbs Racing boots Jason Leffler out of the No. 11 Chevy. Leffler has
struggled horribly in the first 11 races, collecting just one top-20
finish.

Burton won't confirm whether he's talked with JGR, but he does say
he's had some conversations recently with at least one Cup team.

"I've had a little conversation, but not really in detail yet," he
said. "I don't believe, unless it's something really unusual, that
there'll be some available ride right at the moment."

While Ward doesn't seem to be in a particular hurry to get in a race
car, younger brother Jeff Burton admits he misses seeing his sibling
on the racetrack.

"I've raced with or against Ward for 15 years and I've learned the
art of being able to pay attention to what he was doing as well as
what I was doing," Jeff Burton said. "I enjoyed having someone to
talk to that was family and was always there on the weekends. I don't
have that anymore."

Two weeks ago at Richmond, Jeff Burton said that if Ward can't find
the right Cup ride this year, he'd love to see him in, at the very
least, a Busch or Trucks ride.

"What it boils down to is how much is Ward missing it," Jeff Burton
said. "If Ward starts missing it a whole lot, then I think you'll see
him in a Busch car or a truck, which is what I'd like to see him do.
When you're over 40 years old, everybody wants to know when you're
going to retire, not when they're going to hire you.

"Ward's 43 years old and he's got caught up in the youth movement.
He's a great driver, he's got a lot of talent left in him and he can
do it. But he's got to make that decision, not me. If I was him,
that's what I'd be doing, because I just want to race – I'd still
want to race real bad."

Not so, little brother, Ward says adamantly.

"I'm not considering Trucks or Busch right now," Ward Burton
said. "I've been a Winston Cup and Nextel Cup driver for 10-plus
years, and I'm just not right now ready to go and give 100 percent to
less than that. I'm not saying I won't, and I'm not going to say
never, but right now I'm not interested in it."




Veteran motorsports writer Jerry Bonkowski is a Yahoo! Sports NASCAR
analyst. Send Jerry a question or comment for potential use in a
future column or webcast.