When Jeb Burton decided to join the wave of throwback paint schemes for Labor Day weekend at Darlington Raceway, he didn’t have far to look for inspiration. Burton’s BK Racing entry for the 66th running of the Bojangles’ Southern 500 will pay tribute to the career of his father, Ward Burton, a two-time winner at NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway. “I saw all the throwback stuff and Estes has the same colors as Dad had, so I just thought about the idea and I got the PR team to come up with a design,” Jeb Burton said. “I saw it and I thought it’d be a cool idea so we went on with it.” Ward Burton caught his first glimpse of the car’s vintage look ahead of last weekend’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The resemblance “ both in colors and its similarly styled numbers “ is uncanny. “It’s really cool,” the 53-year-old Burton said. “We had a lot of success at Darlington, but more importantly I really appreciate Jeb thinking about me.” Ward Burton flew the Caterpillar flag for his most prominent wins in NASCAR’s premier series, foremost among them the 2002 Daytona 500. The yellow-and-black look was also front and center for Burton and crew chief Tommy Baldwin Jr. when the Davis-owned team found a sweet spot at Darlington, yielding two victories at the 1.366-mile track, including the 2001 Southern 500.(NASCAR.com), see an image of the car on the #23 team paint schemes page.(8-26-2015)
