He's no young gun, but Ward Burton deserves a ride

	Ward Burton has a solid track record as a driver and as a citizen. So what's the problem? Robert Laberge/Getty Images

Forget the boy-band drivers that have proliferated NASCAR's ranks in recent years. Some team needs to give Ward Burton a ride.

Sure, Burton's not a household name in today's pop-culture world. He's not even a superstar driver. If he was, he probably wouldn't have been on the sidelines the past two seasons.

Burton is solid, however, both as a citizen and as a driver. He's the real McCoy, a proven veteran who is better than at least a dozen of the current Nextel Cup regulars. The only escapade a NASCAR owner would read about in his morning newspaper is Burton winning another award for his volunteer efforts.

Remember, this is a guy who four years ago won the Daytona 500 and has twice finished in the top 10 in points. Some of the hot newcomers on the circuit are never going to win a single race, never finish in the top 10 in the standings -- no matter how much fans and team owners praise them.

So if he's solid, why doesn't Burton already have a ride?

Part of it was his fault. He received some offers but said he "couldn't get excited about them." Burton is being nice. He's raced for two owners on the Cup level -- Bill Davis and Gene Haas -- and he knows the difference between a team that has a chance of winning and one that does not. Burton simply wants to race for an organization that has a realistic chance to compete.

Another of Burton's faults is that he can be hard to understand when he speaks. He has a drawl that is so intense that sometimes you can't tell if he's speaking English or not. Born in Virginia, Burton grew up in a rural area and long ago created his own wildlife foundation. In this age of mass communication, sponsors want their poster boys to be like Hollywood stars. Ward is a glimpse of NASCAR's Southern past, not its Madison Avenue present.