NASCAR WCUP: Jeff Burton Interview: Racing in New Hampshire
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
July 18, 2001The last time Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 99 Citgo SUPERGARD Taurus, visited New Hampshire International Speedway he did something that hadn't been done in more than 20 years. Burton became the first driver since Cale Yarborough in 1978 to lead every lap of a NASCAR Winston Cup event as he won the Dura-Lube 300 sponsored by Kmart. Burton, who has four of his 16 NWC triumphs at Loudon, spoke about his success at the 1.058-mile facility as well as his position on the restrictor plate, which will not be used this weekend.
JEFF BURTON --99-- Citgo SUPERGARD Taurus -- NHIS HAS BEEN VERY GOOD TO YOU. "Yeah, especially this race. We certainly go there with optimism. It's been a different kind of year for everybody, not just us, so the tire issue is going to be a big issue there but we do know how to get around the track and know some tidbits about how to win there. We're going to Milwaukee on Wednesday to test. It's gonna be a busy week. We're going Monday and Tuesday to Indy and then Wednesday we're going to Milwaukee, so we're doing all we know to do to get ready for New Hampshire short of going there to test. I don't know, it's a track that, for whatever reason, we've had some things go our way at times and we've made things go our way at times also. I look forward to going there for sure."
YOU MENTIONED TIRES BEING AN ISSUE. WHAT ABOUT THE RESTRICTOR PLATE ISSUE AND THE FACT THAT THERE ARE NO PLANS TO RUN ONE THIS TIME AROUND, UNLIKE WHEN YOU WON THERE LAST FALL? "It certainly won't let you take the notes from the race you ran before and apply them. I know the restrictor plate race wasn't what people considered fun to watch, but that was mainly because we made it not fun to watch. It wasn't, in my opinion, because of the restrictor plate. We had a day like Dale Jarrett had at Michigan a few years ago where he made the race boring because he was that much better. I think it all got blamed on the plate and it wasn't the plate. If you go back and watch that race, the people that started in the back came to the front. There was passing. It's always been hard to pass there, there's nothing new about that. I don't know. They've had problems there. I love that race track, but I wish we could have figured out what we needed to do to make things better. There's just not an easy answer. I know the Bahre's would do anything in the world if they could make it better and I know NASCAR would do anything in the world if they could make it better. It's just one of those things where there's an answer out there, but you're not really sure what it is. I go there a little pessimistic because we have had trouble there and we haven't done anything different this time."
WOULD YOU AT LEAST LIKE TO SEE THE RESTRICTOR PLATE AGAIN? "I thought the restrictor plate was a good answer because it changes the angle of impact at which you hit the wall. It moves you further down the wall, which changes the impact. Obviously, we know from experience that if you have a problem getting in the corner there, that the angle at which you hit the wall is wrong. So, I thought the plate was a good answer because you lifted later. That meant you would hit the wall at a different angle. If you're doing something that you know is wrong, changing it is probably not wrong so I didn't think the plate was a bad answer and that's not because we won that race. Before we went up there I was a proponent of the plate. I thought it was a good answer. Some people said, 'No, it's not because you're gonna drive into the corner deeper and you're just gonna hit the wall harder.' I never believed that. I believe that you would hit the wall different."
THE DRIVERS VOICED THEIR FEELINGS VERY STRONGLY LAST YEAR THAT SOMETHING NEEDED TO BE DONE AT LOUDON FOR THAT FALL RACE. WE HAVEN'T HEARD THAT THIS YEAR. "It's odd isn't it? I don't know why because nothing has changed. There's been no new technology with the exception of some in-car stuff. I'm sure people feel better about what they're doing inside their car, but there has been nothing that's been made better for the race track."
LEADING THE FALL RACE FROM START TO FINISH ISN'T EASY. "No, it's not. The rules are the same for everybody and somebody took advantage of it and it happened to be us. That happens every week. We happened to get everything lined up and it all went right for us. The fact that nobody stayed out and led five laps under caution amazes me everytime I think about it. It'll be a long, long, long time before anybody leads every lap again because if I'm running 20th and there are 20 cars on the lead lap, I'm gonna stay out and lead five laps. Nobody did that, so that was pretty weird. We did everything we needed to do though to lead every lap. We had good pit stops all day and everything came together, so it was pretty cool."
WHEN DID IT DAWN ON YOU THAT YOU COULD LEAD ALL 300 LAPS? "It was late in the race. With maybe 50 or 75 to go I starting thinking we had led every lap to that point unless somebody had stayed out under caution. But I kept remembering coming out being the first car behind the pace car and thought we had led every lap, so that was a pretty cool feeling. Then Bobby (Labonte) came and made a real good run at me at the end of the race. I'm thinking, 'This is gonna stink to lead 295 laps and not win,' but it was a neat day."
ONCE YOU MADE THE FINAL STOP WAS THE GOAL TO LEAD EVERY LAP? "Oh, it certainly turned into a goal. There's no doubt about it. When we got late in the race, it made it that much bigger to go win it and lead every lap. I'm not a historian in figures and facts. I'm a historian about the sport because I like it so much, but I didn't remember ever seeing anybody lead the whole race. I respect so much of what went on before I ever got here and I couldn't remember anybody doing that, so I still think that was pretty cool."
WHAT'S REALISTIC FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM THIS YEAR? TOP 10 IN POINTS? "I hadn't even thought about it. We're concentrating race by race. I really have not thought about the points. We're gonna judge our year based on our performance and not by points. It's more important, in my opinion, of what we believe about our year than what everybody else believes about our year. A lot of people just look at points and they say, 'Hey, you finished eighth in points or you finished 15th in points, but you had this kind of year.' I don't look at it like that. If we mutter around and finish seventh, eighth, 10th, like we've been doing lately and ended up eighth in the points I would think, 'Wow, we didn't lead enough laps. We didn't do all those things.' We certainly want to be as high in the points as we can, don't get me wrong, but it's more about performance -- how fast can we go? That's the bridge to your overall success -- speed. Once you have speed, then you can tune your program and fix all the little things, but the first priority is speed. That's where our focus needs to be, so that's why I'm not all wound up about the points."
REGARDLESS OF WHAT HAPPENS IT'S BEEN A STRANGE SORT OF YEAR HASN'T IT? "We certainly haven't lived up to our expectations or anybody else's expectations, but neither have a lot of people. I believe the tire has had a major impact on who can perform well for whatever reason and we didn't do a good job of that. We're learning, but it's a little slower than I'd like it to be. This sport does that. Whenever you think you've got it all figured out and you're smart and you know what you're doing, it'll knock you down. Jeff Gordon finished ninth in the points last year and he's the guy that everybody is saying is gonna win the championship this year, so one bad year doesn't mean that your whole deal is done. It's in how you handle it. What did you learn from it? How did you make it better? How did you get smarter? What was the result of your learning efforts. If we come out of this year feeling like we can go into next year and be real competitive, I'll be okay with it because we would have weathered the storm. We would have gotten stronger as a team, gotten smarter as a team and matured as a team and those things pay dividends if you don't panic and we certainly haven't panicked."
NOTE: Cale Yarborough started second and led wire-to-wire at Nashville on June 3, 1978 (420 laps). That marked the second time in his career he had achieved that feat. Yarborough did it for the first time on March 25, 1973 at Bristol when he started from the pole and led all 500 laps.
Text provided by Greg Shea
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