Conversation: Ward Burton

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Ward Burton doesn't fit the mold of today's NASCAR driver, but he is more than comfortable in his own skin.

Burton is loyal to a fault, and that may have cost him some top rides in the past. But he has no regrets.

TrackPass Audio Ward Burton Listen to the Conversation!

Burton is active off the track, too, and through his Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation has advanced the cause of conservation and land management, issues he holds dear to his heart.

Burton spoke with NASCAR.COM's Lee Montgomery last weekend about a variety of topics, from his future with Haas CNC Racing and in NASCAR to his brother Jeff to his unique style of phrases to his off-track work with wildlife and to his participation in other sports.

OK, so what's the deal for next year? Do you know yet? Are you going to stay here?

Ward Burton: Really not sure yet, to be completely honest with you. Working on some things and still talking to them here a little bit, but I'm still not sure.

Is that frustrating at this point in the season to not be secure with a ride next year? Does that wear on you at all?

Burton: I would say yes and no. One part of me that, yeah, it's kind of hard to believe that as long as I've been in this sport, the career I've had - I feel like I've proven I can drive racecars - to be in this position.

Nextel Cup Series •   Results •   Standings •   Schedule •   Best 25 Over Last Six Races •   Best Starts •   Best Finishes •   Complete Race Coverage

At the same time, when I look at the big picture, I've been racing full-time since about '90 and full-time in Winston Cup - now Nextel Cup - for 10-plus years, so I've been very fortunate to be able to do what I've been able to do on the racetrack.

Equally as important to me is all the good things I've been able to do, whether it be for children's programs or the Wildlife Foundation, all the relationships I've formed with a lot of different people and companies, who would have ever thought that someone like me would have been able to do the things that I've been able to do.

So in the big picture, I'm very thankful for what I've been able to accomplish. I feel like that I'm still solidly the same person I was when I got in this sport.

You're not ready to say, "The heck with all this" and walk away from it, are you?

Burton: No, I'm really not. But I will say the older you get, the little bit less tolerant you are for it. Being in the middle of this sport, there are a lot of great things about it. There are some things that play on you.

Ward (left) with rookie Scott Riggs Credit: Autostock

As an example, I left Wednesday morning - I didn't have to do this, but it's my passion, it's who I am - and went to South Dakota and did a fundraiser with Blue Ox and some of their dealers hunting pheasants.

That turned out great, and I had a ball doing it, meeting all the Blue Ox dealers and some groups like Pheasants Forever and meeting some great people who are doing super things on their land for conservation.

I was gone those two days and I'll be gone three more. Not to see my kids for five days, even though I'm not off playing, makes me feel guilty. It's my conscious. There are parts of it that weigh on you.

But you know, if I wasn't doing this, whether it's a hunting show or whatever, I'd probably be doing something else and still have those feelings. Regardless of what happens, I've got to make a living doing something.

How many pheasants did you get the other day?

Burton: I got my limit both days. The main thing was that we were raising money for conservation. My foundation was going to give some money to Pheasants Forever. It was a success for Blue Ox. To be able to do something for a sponsor outside of the racing avenue was something that I learned quite a bit about, and I had fun doing it.

Are you comfortable with this? Is this where you want to be at this point in your career?

Burton: I wish we had not gone through quite so many changes. I wish that the team had been a little bit more solid in their program when I had gotten here.

But I think there were times we were heading in the right direction, and then we made big personnel changes, and it's been kind of a regrouping every couple of months that's been somewhat frustrating.

I don't think it was done in a way to try to cause problems, but obviously when you go through a lot of changes, it's hard to regroup quick enough.

You've got a new crew chief in Bootie (Barker). What's it been like to working with him? You guys are both Virginia guys.

Burton: Bootie's a great guy, and he's got the best attitude of anybody I know. He's been through a lot with his life. He was a great athlete, and then to go through the car wreck and all that and still carry himself the way he does and have the attitude the way he does is a real inspiration, whether he's at the racetrack or just being the person he is.

Burton has notched just three top-10s in 2004. Credit: Autostock

We didn't run good at Atlanta. It's almost like everywhere we go, if we had a little hindsight, a little bit of 20/20 knowledge before the fact of what we know now, if we were racing tomorrow, we'd be better.

But that doesn't help us a whole lot. Again, being able to get it working and make it successful in a couple weeks is a hard thing to do.

It's a hard thing for him, stepping up and all of a sudden taking over Winston Cup duties. It's a hard thing for both of us to figure out together what the car needs. We're going to be giving it 100 percent, I guarantee that.

It's almost too much to expect, wouldn't you agree with that, with so little time left in the season, to expect you two to all of a sudden start running up front, or is that realistic?

Burton: It puts a lot on your plate. We certainly will be concentrating, and we've talked a couple times this week, talked a couple times (Friday) morning before we go out on the racetrack. But it is a lot to ask.

I love some of the sayings that you've had through the years. I think my favorite is "three-legged goat," "runs like a three-legged goat." Where does that stuff come from?

Burton: Well, you've got to go back and put yourself in my shoes. It was a little bit after I was living off the land. I was renting a house out in rural Virginia and had five or six goats. One of the little kids - you call a baby goat a kid - had a deformed leg.

I nursed him, and he'd run around the yard and jump on cars, the same thing a goat would do. A goat, when it comes to learning from the past, a goat doesn't have enough sense to remember if he got shocked by an electric fence, not to go hit the electric fence again.

So, that goat couldn't run very good, and that's why I came up with "three-legged goat."

You know, a lot of folks would love to see you and Jeff on the same team some point. Would that be cool? Is that something at all realistic before you get out of this?

Burton: I would love for it to be able to happen. There's a little bit of a situation out there right now where it probably could, but it doesn't look like it's going to. There are a lot of opportunities that could've been missed.

Without me going into details of them, there were some really top-notch rides. In the first two to seven-and-a-half years in the sport, I was offered some really big rides out here that have won championships. Because of loyalty and because of other people it was going to affect, I didn't make the decisions based solely on what could help me.

Looking back on it, it's kind of a little bit of whom I am and my upbringing to be loyal. At the same time, in this type of business, I'm not sure that I should've made some of those decisions.

I'm not looking back, and I don't have any question of what could've been, what would've been, but I think when you're an athlete and you're in a situation like this when you're dependent on so many people to be successful, you've got to look out for No. 1, more than anybody else. It's just my nature not to do that.

Jeff played soccer in high school. Did you play soccer or any other sports?

Burton: I was into basketball a lot.

Basketball? What position did you play?

Burton: Oh, of course, point guard. I fed it to the big guys and made stuff happen. I played baseball a lot, too. I had asthma troubles back then, and I was trying out for football.

The guy had the best running back, put me in a circle, and I had to take the running back down. And I did take him down, but it knocked the breath out of me and made me have asthma. So I couldn't play football.

I was always into shooting competition skeet with my grandfather a lot, too.

We talked a little but about the Wildlife Federation you've got going. Will you spend more time with that in the off-season? Is that what you like to do to relax?

Burton: I don't know how I'd spend more time with it, because I spend two to four hours on it every day, every day that I'm awake. Matter of fact, just this morning, I was on the phone.

ALSO Archive:  Conversation

I was on the phone last night going over a conservation easement rough draft that's got to be submitted to the Virginia forestry department.

I was outlining about 12 bulletin points that we need to take care of, talking to my director that I hired, how we're going to do it, where our direction is, da, da, da, da. I was trying to be somewhat of a leader or a motivator and a spearhead-type of person on that.

I work on that every day, and that's what I was doing in South Dakota. Not that I didn't have fun being in South Dakota, but I was there raising funds for conservation.

Could that be something where you maybe run for public office, to try to push some of your agenda eventually?

Burton: I don't know. If someone dug up all of my past, it probably wouldn't really be colorful. There's a little bit there that even some of y'all don't even know about.

Feel free to share.

Burton: Nah, I don't I'm going to go in that direction today. It's just being a kid and not having some priorities together and just having fun. It was never anything hurtful to anybody. But anytime I ever did anything, I always got caught for it.

But anyway. You know, one thing about being involved with state parks or as spokesman for the (wildlife) rescue system - I'm probably going to have a national relationship with 4-H - all the things I've been so fortunate to be involved with, it has given the foundation and myself a little bit of a voice.

A lot of times, when it comes to decisions being made by powers to be when it comes to politics - whether it's local, state or federal - you can make a bigger difference behind doors, and people do.

All these politicians have long chains, and people pull their chains. They have long chains because they have relationships.

If you have a relationship with someone, you can voice strong opinions. A lot of cases, you can make a bigger difference behind the doors vs. facing the door and actually being in office. We have certainly seen that more than one time locally, and particularly, state.

As an example, getting our forest legacy appropriations done, it was a year-and-a-half in progress. It had to go first through the state forestry department, it had to go through the House, and then it had to go through the Senate.

It took a lot of what we feel like good people and influential people to believe in what we stand for in what we want to do to make it happen, or it would've never happened.

So you like yanking chains?

Burton: No, I'm not going to like yanking on chains, but there are a lot of areas I see as black or white and a lot of areas I don't see in gray.

There are some areas that are somewhat gray, and there's a balance. In my world, it's a balance between conservation and development. We've got a lot of people, so it's a balance. It's more about conservation and preservation.

In all of that, whether it's hunting rights, land use rights, there are not of gray area in my head. We get involved because we're passionate and we care.