Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Ward Burton has had few positives this year

Tuesday, June 25, 2002 | 11:14 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Ward Burton's 40th-place finish in Sunday's Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Sears Point Raceway typified the way the season has gone since he won his first Daytona 500 back in February.

After leaving Daytona as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series points leader, Burton has posted only one top-10 finish (seventh at Atlanta) and has steadily slipped to 25th in points.

"Everything that has happened to our race team since (Daytona) has definitely not been positive," Burton said. "We've just had a lot of problems mechanically, getting the cars to handle -- you name it and we've had it happen to us."

On Sunday, it was a gear problem that put an end to Burton's day after 86 of 110 laps.

"Right now, we're in a slump and we've all lost confidence in each other and it's just because of how long we've been going through this ride we've been going through," Burton added. "At the same time ... it wasn't but a month ago that we set a track record and should have won the race. I know at any given moment I could be sitting in the car capable of doing it. The problem is we're just inconsistent."

Burton said he hopes that the Bill Davis Racing team can turn things around when the series returns to Daytona next week for the Pepsi 400.

"If we can get to Daytona and stay out of trouble, hopefully we can start the season over again," he said.

"For whatever reason, it seems like we get down on motors at the start of the season and then by midseason we pick it back up. We've done it the last two years. This is the third year. The guys are working hard but we just haven't got it right now."

Of his five top-fives, one came on a short-track (his win at Bristol Motor Speedway), three came on superspeedways 2 miles or longer (Daytona, Talladega and California) and Sunday's came on a road course.

Gaughan, who finished 13th at Memphis Motorsports Park, is 10th in the series points standings and only 83 points out of fifth place.

It will mark the first time in Busch Series history that four immediate family members will compete in the same race.

"It's realistic that we all finish in the top ten because Jay, Johnny, and I have finished in the top fifteen twice already this year," Tim Sauter said. "For the limited amount of races Jay's running, that's awesome.

"I would expect us all to be very competitive with each other, but most importantly this is going to be fun."