DATE: Sunday, March 30, 1997                TAG: 9703300180

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C17  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   42 lines

NEW VENUE WILL PUT DRIVERS ON EQUAL FOOTING, JEFF BURTON SAYS

Here is a scouting report on Texas Motor Speedway from Winston Cup driver Jeff Burton:

``The only people who think Texas is going to be Charlotte-in-the-West are the people who haven't been there. It may look like Charlotte Motor Speedway when you're standing on pit road or sitting in the grandstands. But that's where the similarities stop.

``Texas has some very unique things about the racetrack. It's like no other place we've been. But any negatives don't make it bad; they make it interesting to me. I don't want to go halfway across the country and race at a racetrack that's just like Charlotte.

``When you get on the racetrack, turn 1 is a very, very tight corner. There is only one groove getting into (turn) 1. You almost have to tiptoe into 1. But once you get into 1, you can be real aggressive.

Once you get to turn 2, you've got to make another turn. That's way unique compared to Charlotte.

``The backstretch at Texas sure seems shorter, and getting into turn 3 is a lot different. You won't see people using different grooves getting into 3. It's just on the bottom. But you can go into turn 3 way harder than turn 1 and get back into the throttle quickly. But turn 4 is really tight. It's actually tighter than turn 2. You've really got to pay attention or you could eat up that wall pretty quickly.

``It's going to be hard to run side-by-side in the tri-oval. It's tight. It wouldn't surprise me to see some wrecks in the tri-oval, which is scary because it's so fast. Getting onto pit road is tight, too. The radius of turn 4 is so much different than most places we go to; you've got to get on pit road earlier. I bet some people miss pit road on green-flag stops.

``The race is not going to be won getting into the corners, it's going to be won getting off the corners - who can get in the gas fastest. Track position is going to be very important, so pit stops are going to be critical.

``It will take some of us longer than others to get used to it. But now it's a wonderful opportunity for everyone, because everyone is on equal ground. I think that's exciting. You could see a surprise winner because everyone is on equal ground.''

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