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NASCAR Winston Cup Pennsylvania 500 Report -- #99, Jeff Burton

22 July 1997

 #99 Jeff Burton, Exide Batteries Ford Thunderbird
 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
 Pennsylvania 500 Race Report
 Pocono Raceway

                 JEFF BURTON PENNSYLVANIA 500 RECAP



LONG POND, PA - Sunday's Pennsylvania 500 turned out to be a great
race for the Exide Batteries Racing Team. They turned in another
top-live finish after what started out as a miserable weekend.

The team unloaded the car off the transporter on Friday, and ran some
of the fastest times in the morning practice session. Unfortunately,
later in the session, Burton ran too high in turn three, got into the
marbles at the top of the track, looped the car, and ran the back end
of the car into the wall. The car sustained enough damage for the team
to decide to go to the back-up. They ran three laps and decided they
didn't like the motor, and went to work to take the motor out of the
primary, and put it into the back-up car. They were left without time
to practice before qualifying that afternoon. Their luck changed for
the better, as a quick afternoon shower delayed qualifying for 49
minutes which gave them more time to work on completing the engine
change. When they finally pushed the car out on pit road to qualify,
the mostly sunny sky had clouded over, and Jeff ran a lap of 166.242
mph, putting him in the 20th spot on the starting grid. "That's not
bad at all," Burton said. "I got us in trouble.  We had a great race
car. Now we've got a good race car. We're going to try to make it a
great race car. We switched cars, then ran three laps with this car
and didn't like the motor, so they took the motor out of the car I
wrecked and put it in this car. Every bit of the credit goes to those
guys. That's not a great qualifying effort, but that's about where we
qualify anyway. To be able to unload and do that well. I'm just really
proud of my guys and myself."

The race began, and Jeff steadily moved up through the field despite
complaining of a very tight car. The team made tire pressure, and
track bar adjustments to remedy the condition, and by the end of the
first round of pit stops had made their way into the top 10. The crew
continued to make adjustments throughout the race, and were able to
lead several laps to pick up live bonus points. They finished the race
in third place, behind winner Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon.  Teammate Ted
Musgrave ran a great race, while Mark Martin overcame adversity, and
the Roush trio finished third, fourth and fifth.

The team remained in fifth place in the Winston Cup point standings,
201 points behind leader Gordon. The series takes next weekend off,
and then heads to Indianapolis for the August 2nd Brickyard 400.

By Roush Racing Public Relations