Joliet CAT Team preview

"We had a great run last week at Daytona. We were competitive all night long. We had good pit stops and we communicated real well. That's what we needed to do and we did it. Now, we can move on and try and do the same thing this weekend at Chicago."
- Ward Burton, driver of the Caterpillar Racing Dodge

Chicagoland Speedway
Tropicana 400

BURTON ON RACING AT A NEW VENUE IN CHICAGO:

"I am very excited to be heading to Chicago. It is in the backyard of Caterpillar's main headquarters in Peoria, Ill., where there are literally thousands of CAT fans. We should have a good following at the new track and wouldn't it be great to get that first win of the season in their home state?"

"I have heard that the track is very fast and wide like Michigan, but banked like Texas. The combination of the two tracks would make it very fast. I would also expect there to be a lot more grip with the new pavement and that is going to increase the speeds as well. We'll bring a lot of gears and have lots of spring and shock combinations to try since we haven't been there yet."

BURTON ON THE PEPSI 400:

"The plan was to come home in one piece and we accomplished that. I think we had one of the best racecars out there, but we couldn't get the rear to stick. It felt like the car was driving me and I couldn't control it enough to make any moves up through the middle and try and drive to the front.

We sat back there and rode for a few laps until Tommy and the guys could make some changes to the car. There wasn't any point in trying to race with a car that was somewhat out of control. We waited until we could pit to make changes and that was the right thing to do. We got in the mix of things there at the end and that's all you can ask for at those kind of races."

BURTON DALE EARNHARDT JR.'S VICTORY:

"To win right here where his dad grew into a legend is pretty awesome for Dale Jr. He led a bunch of laps and it looked like his car was handling exceptionally well, even in the long runs. It's pretty neat for the race fans and his family." <pre> 2001 PERFORMANCE DATE EVENT START FINISH LC/TL STATUS EARNINGS PTS. POS.

Feb. 18  Daytona        10    35     173/200 Accident   165,019  35
Feb. 25  Rockingham     11    16     392/393 Running     74,495  25
March 4  Las Vegas      13    21     266/267 Running     95,410  26
March 11 Atlanta        14    11     324/325 Running     74,425  21
March 18 Darlington     21    12     293/293 Running     70,930  17
March 25 Bristol        18    5      500/500 Running    100,580  11
April 1  Texas          28    21     331/334 Running    102,235  12
April 8  Martinsville   38    22     499/500 Running     69,485  11
April 22 Talladega      39    33     187/188 Running     77,125  16
April 29 California     18    42     223/250 Accident    78,835  19
May 5    Richmond       10    21     398/400 Running     72,185  19
May 27   Charlotte      9     9      400/400 Running    104,610  19
June 3   Dover          19    14     399/400 Running     83,970  17
June 10  Michigan       40    38     184/200 Radiator    68,040  19
June 17  Pocono         21    40     113/200 Accident    63,910  23
June 24  Sears Point    5     6      112/112 Running     88,975  19
July 7   Daytona        2     4      160/160 Running    123,285  18
July 15  Chicago

-CAT-