Ward Burton will start alongside polesitter Casey Mears in Sunday's Brickyard 400. Credit: Autostock

Ward Burton excited about front-row start

SPEEDWAY, Ind. -- Jason Leffler stole the show during Friday's Brickyard practice, leading the Haas CNC Racing team with the fastest lap at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Leffler's speed of 184.460 was significantly faster than teammate Ward Burton, who best lap was 181.408.

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Maybe they swapped cars by the time qualifying started Saturday. Burton surged to the front row by going 185.391 mph, while Leffler struggled at 181.980.

Ah, but it wasn't so dramatic, Burton said after qualifying second for one of NASCAR's biggest races.

"Yesterday we had some shocks on the car that made the car picked up a bounce in the middle of the corner," Burton said. "That bounce will send you up the track. We changed our package with the shocks, and that's really what picked our car up. That's about the only thing we changed."

Car owner Gene Haas said the setups on his two cars were pretty close to each other.

"They're Hendrick chassis, so the information is kind of shared between all the drivers," Haas said. "Each driver's got a little different setup."

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Burton ended up .235 seconds behind polesitter Casey Mears, saying the difference between the two laps was Mears' ability to get on the gas earlier.

But Burton won't be pulling his hair out. Second place at Indianapolis is a good place to start.

"It means a lot," Burton said. "It comes at a good time for all of us at the NetZero team. We're trying to build for the future. We made some changes the last couple of weeks that's definitely getting the light at the end of the tunnel. This is another example of that."

Crew chief Tony Furr was replaced by Bill Ingle, with Furr becoming shop foreman. But Furr decided to leave, as did some other employees.

"We made some pretty significant personnel changes three weeks ago," Burton said. "We lost some when we made changes. At the same time, the direction we're going now, we're using all the available resources."

Running well in 21st century NASCAR is less about experience than about the mechanics and aerodynamics of the cars, Burton said. One person can't make a car go fast any more. It takes an entire team, with all its engineers and experts, to run up front.

Ingle has changed the direction of the team, Burton and Haas said, getting Haas CNC more in line with the team from which it gets engines and chassis, the powerful Hendrick Motorsports.

"We're going away from the 'Tony Furr' setups," Haas said. "We're trying to get back more toward the Hendrick setups. It seems like it's working a little bit better for Ward."

Burton ran well at Pocono Raceway last weekend before a broken transmission relegated him to 31st. But there was plenty of reason for optimism, and Saturday's qualifying confirmed it.

Still, there has been some controversy swirling around the team. Burton was rumored to be in trouble with the team, and Burton was angry at an unnamed reporter who wrote he was on the "hot seat."

"I guess there are two words out there this week called 'hot seat' that I've been on all week," Burton said. "Of course, I wouldn't even have know about it if it hadn't been for my wife."

Haas said Burton's job is not in jeopardy, at least not this year.

"No decisions have been made (for 2005)," Haas said. "He's certainly in the car for the rest of the year. But when you're 25th, 26th in points, I guess people will speculate. We certainly want to do better. We keep making changes, we keep trying to find the magic. Hopefully, we'll find it.

"But we thing Ward's a great driver. In the last two races, he's done really well. ... He still has a lot of potential."

Part of the problem for next year has been a sponsorship situation that is "in flux," Haas said. NetZero hasn't committed to the team for 2005 yet, and the company usually waits until later in the year to decide.

"We haven't put anything down in writing yet," Haas said. "It all kind of depends on how things go the next couple of months. It's going to be determined by events that happen in the future, not anything happening right now."

But if the future includes run like Saturday, Burton seems secure.

"This is the highest we've started in the couple years we've been doing this," Haas said. "It's a good feeling. We're knocking on the door."

Time to kick it down?