A practice crash before the Pepsi 400 at Daytona was just one of Ward Burton's low points in 2004. Credit: Autostock

Slumping Burton pleased with Happy Hour promise

DOVER, Del. -- Though Ward Burton's future with Haas/CNC Racing remains uncertain, the present is just fine.

Burton departed the Nextel Cup garage Saturday afternoon with the solace that stems from the fastest lap in the weekend's final race. Burton paced Happy Hour practice Saturday at Dover International Speedway, a rare bright spot in a trying season that has included six DNFs, two in the past six events, and an average finishing position of 25th.

Ward Burton

His 23.387-second lap -- at nearly 154 mph -- was just two-hundredths of a second faster than second place Kasey Kahne.

Kahne was fourth in the morning practice session, and, of course, was leading in the late stages of the MBNA 400 here in the spring before driving through oil on the track and backing his No. 9 Dodge into the outside retaining wall, handing victory to Mark Martin.

Martin looks strong again, as well, after posting the fourth-best time in Happy Hour after placing fifth in a morning session paced by Martin's Roush Racing teammate, Matt Kenseth. Kenseth fell to sixth overall in Happy Hour, while fellow Chaser Jeremy Mayfield was one position better in fifth.

Ryan Newman, last fall's Dover winner, looks stout, as well. He placed seventh in the morning practice before improving to third in Happy Hour, and looks forward to another solid effort in what will be his 100th Nextel Cup Series start. Newman's 57 total laps run were the most in the session.

"I like banked racetracks first of all," said Newman, a two-time Dover winner who, in five career starts, has finished outside the top 10 just once. "Concrete doesn't change a lot as far as the balance or stuff.

"So when you get a car that's right it stays right for the day and you can usually come back the next race whether it's three months later or a year later and do the same thing all over again. Once it starts clicking it keeps clicking."

He says pit road will be crucial Sunday.

Burton finished 43rd at Talladega when his engine expired.

"We should have a good pit selection as far as getting a good pit because pit road is so tight and narrow here it's difficult to get out without knocking a fender off and one of the hardest parts about this pit road coming in is that it gets so tight under caution guys will slow down 10 or 15 mph under the speed limit and then if you're eighth in line you lose so much time coming down pit road before you get to do your pit stop," Newman said.

"If you've got just a so-so pit stop you end up coming out a second or a second and a half behind. It's really difficult in that respect. If we get a good pit selection as well as the track position we get to start with, hopefully we can keep that all day."

The necessity for solid pit stops bodes well for Kenseth, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, who swept both Dover races in 2002 and posted the 10th quickest time Saturday during Happy Hour. Gordon, a four-time Dover winner who wrecked out of the spring race, was 19th in Happy Hour, down from 17th in the morning session.

Elliott Sadler was 11th in Happy Hour, and says Sunday's key is staying out of trouble.

"I think you've got to finish the race here at Dover," Sadler said. "You cannot fall out of this race and get a DNF going to Talladega knowing that there's a great possibility you can get another DNF there.

"That's two DNFs and you're done in this championship, so tomorrow's race at Dover is just another race you need to finish and run all the laps."

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Sadler has typically not been stellar at Dover, as evidenced by his average career finish at the one-mile concrete oval - 20th. He doesn't pay that notion much mind.

"You know what's funny about that, people said the same thing before we went to Indy and we finished third, and they said the same thing before we went to California and we won the race, so I hope everyone keeps talking like that this weekend," Sadler said.

"There have been a lot of tracks that we haven't run good at in the past, but that's why it's in the past. I think my driving style and my confidence this year is above anything it's ever been and I think I'm with the best race team I've ever been with and we're jelling right now.

"We know exactly what I'm looking for every week, so we're not looking at the stats. We're looking at, 'Hey, we finished eighth last week and we need to make it better this week.' Those are the kind of stats we're going off of. If we don't run in the top five tomorrow, I'll be very disappointed with how good our car is right now."

Nextel Cup points leaders Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Kurt Busch were eighth and 12th, respectively, as both improved from their respective ranks in the first practice.

Greg Biffle, second in the morning, plummeted to 21st in Happy Hour. Others with strong machines include Michael Waltrip, who qualified fifth Friday but was 22nd fastest Saturday morning and 28th in Happy Hour.