ROCKINGHAM, N.C. — Now that the excitement over winning NASCAR's biggest race has begun to subside, Daytona 500 champion Ward Burton is thinking about the practical side of his biggest victory.
"It's going to help our team a lot," he said. "It will probably help my wildlife foundation a lot. People will probably look at me differently, but I don't look at myself any differently.
"It means a lot because it's going to help us renegotiate with our team sponsor," Burton added. "That's coming up shortly. It's going to help us secure other associates we need to be able to get our funding up where some of the top teams are, too."
Burton would love to build on that start with another win on Sunday in the Subway 400 at North Carolina Speedway. He will start 18th in the 43-car field at the track where, in 1995, he earned the first of his four career victories.
Burton was a lap down and finished 16th here last February, but he made up a lost lap and finished sixth in the November race.
"We don't give a lot of account to what we did the first of the season last year because it was such a building year from switching manufacturers, as well as Goodyear coming out with a new tire," said Burton, referring to the team's change from Pontiac to Dodge.
"It took us awhile, just about the first 15 or 20 races to get me adjusted to the new tire and get the chassis adjusted to the new tire," he added. "The last part of the season we started coming on. We started to prove we were getting our act together. One of the places we ran a lot better from the spring to the fall was here. I'm excited to be here."
NASCAR BUSCH SERIES: Jason Keller was overpowering Saturday on the way to victory in the RBCTerm.com200 NASCAR Busch Series race at North Carolina Speedway.
With the last 68 of 197 laps run without a caution, Keller's No. 57 Ford pulled steadily away and wound up beating the Taurus of runner-up Greg Biffle by 6.208 seconds — about one-third of a lap on the 1.017-mile oval. Keller averaged 115.119 mph in a race slowed by five cautions for 27 laps.
It was Keller's sixth career victory and first since last May in Loudon, N.H., a span of 23 races.
NHRA NATIONALS: Larry Dixon claimed his 13th career No. 1 qualifying position and first of the season Saturday in the NHRA's Checker Schuck's Kragen Nationals.
Dixon had a 4.555-second run at 321.50 mph to take the top spot in Top Fuel at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Ariz.
John Force led Funny Car qualifying, covering the quarter-mile in 4.797 at 318.17. Ron Krisher will have the top spot Sunday in the Pro Stock finals after a track-record run of 6.866 at 201.97.