NASCAR NNCS (DOVER) - BURTON INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT...

Jeff Burton, No. 31 AT&T Mobility Chevrolet Dover International Speedway Media Conference Call Transcript Sept. 19, 2007, 10 a.m.

Gary Camp, Dover International Speedway: Race weekend will be here in just a few days. We have three races in three days. On Friday is the NASCAR Busch East Series race. It’s actually the season finale for that series, the Sunoco 150. Saturday is the Busch race, the RoadLoans.com 200. And then Sunday is the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race, the Dodge Dealers 400. Sunny skies. 80 degrees. No rain — we’re due after a tough June.

Today we’re joined by Jeff Burton. He started 27 races here in Dover. One win, six top-5’s, ten top-10’s. His most recent race at Dover, the Autism Speaks 400 in June, he started ninth and finished 12th. Let me start it off by asking what it’s been a year since the big win here in Dover, it ended a 175-race winless streak, talk a little bit about that and what it’s like coming back to Dover after that big win.

Jeff Burton, No. 31 AT&T Mobility Chevrolet: That certainly was a big win for us. To get back into victory lane there was really big. We won the Busch race there in the Spring and then to come back and win the Cup race in the Fall was really cool. I’ve always liked the race track and I’ve been in position to win there quite a few times and just never finished it off but I guess if we were every going to finish one off, that was the one to do it. It put us back on the map and it meant a great to me personally as well as my team.

Camp: I remember it was tough. We were all set in victory lane, and you pulled the car in and got out and the skies just opened up.

Burton: It was pouring down raining.

Camp: What a shame. What is it going to take to repeat that performance from last season? What do you need to do to repeat upon that?

Burton: If you watched the race there from the Spring with Truex and those guys really hitting it with the Car of Tomorrow, but to me, the first race there at Dover was the first real test of the Car of Tomorrow on a bigger, faster racetrack. I think we saw there what I think you’re going to see for a period of time is with this car, and that it’s so new, there will be a period of time where a lot of people are going to hit it. They’ll put a hurting on everybody, and that’s what they did. They did a great job and beat up on everybody, more or less, and just outran everybody. The key there is the same thing that it’s always been about – handling. It’s all about handling. Being able to run on the very body or being able to move the groove and put it where you want to put it, and that’s what he was able to do. He could run wherever he wanted to run. But that’s what our focus has been on. We’ve have not performed well in particular with the Car of Tomorrow, and we haven’t performed as well as we need to. We’ve put a tremendous amount of effort into it, but we just haven’t hit it. One of the things we’ve been working on is trying to find out what our teammates have been doing differently, and they’re having more success. I also think there are something’s that we’ve done that can help them. But with the Car of Tomorrow that’s kind of hard is that none of us have ever felt really, really great about it. We’ve all been kind of searching. We don’t have a baseline set up that we can fall back on so we’re working hard to develop that and I feel better going into this Dover race then I did in the Spring. I thought in practice we were the best car there and then when the race started we were off, and that’s something that we struggle with the Car of Tomorrow. It’s too thin of a razor blade and we need to find ourselves some cushion.

Q: Talk a little bit about qualifying here at Dover. Last year when you won the race you were 19th. Martin Truex Jr. started 26th and won the race in June. How important is qualifying here in Dover? Do you have enough time to work your way through the field?

Burton: Qualifying at Dover is one of the hardest places to qualify. I don’t know what it is but it’s very demanding and very difficult to hit two laps there and hit them well. Our qualifying setup at Dover is quite a bit different than our race setup and so when you qualify poorly there I don’t think that it’s sign that you’re going to race poorly. I think it’s just a sign that you didn’t do a good job qualifying. It is a concern but not that if you don’t do well you can’t race well. I have a history of not qualifying well, especially at Dover. It’s probably my worst qualifying race track, but I’m comfortable there. I enjoy racing there. But I don’t think there’s a whole lot of correlation between qualifying and racing.

Q: In your opinion, what is it going to take to win this year’s championship? Is it wins or consistent top-10’s?

Burton: If you look at the regular season, and look at what Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson were able to do, they were able to put, more so the No. 24 than the No. 48, I think, were able to put consistency together with high performance. It wouldn’t be a surprise for me to see one of these teams go through the ten race schedule without a catastrophic issue. Having said that, you’re going to have to perform at a high level. I think what won it last year was an average of like a 10.7 or 10.6 average finish, but Jimmie led seven or eight races and got a tremendous amount of bonus points. Plus this year, wins pay more than last year, so those numbers are a little bit skewed, but you’re going to have to finish an average of a ninth place finish, which sounds easy. But it’s exceptionally hard to do. We finished 18th last week, so for us to average a ninth, we’re going to have to win this week. We got to start getting that average down and on top of that, we need to lead laps. It’s going to take consistency, but it’s going to take speed.

Q: What do you remember about your first experience in Dover?

Burton: I just remember thinking how fast it was. The speed that you feel at Dover, it’s just a really high-speed racetrack. I came in there, I don’t remember what year it was, but my dad and I owned the car. We came there to race and I couldn’t believe how fast and narrow it was. The straightaways at that place are so narrow. It’s a fun race track, but it is a demanding race track. Just the speed and sensation of speed is something that always whenever I go there is really cool. Every time you go there is like going there for the first time again. The track changes a lot, it’s never the same, it’s just a real challenge.

Q: When you were first here it was still asphalt, correct?

Burton: Yes.

Q: This may be semi-humorous story, maybe not to you, but tell us the story about your monster trophy and your wife.

Burton: Yeah, it’s not funny to her. It’s kind of funny to me. But she decided that it needed to be somewhere else. She wanted to move it. Well of course I’m never home so she went to do it herself. For those of you that don’t know, the Dover trophy is pretty heavy. It’s not a light piece, and my wife weighs all of 95 pounds. So she decided to move it and tripped, and fell on top of it, breaking it into 60 pieces. She fell on top of it and when she did it broke her ribs. So it damaged her, destroyed the trophy, and it was quite a mess. It hurt her, it really did. So the monster bit her.

Q: Did you get a new one?

Burton: Yes, we got a new one. We broke the Dover trophy, the Southern 500 trophy and our Daytona one all in a matter of about two months from each other.

Q: Did she break all of them?

Burton: No. We remodeled our trophy room and put some new shelves in and I set the Darlington Southern 500 trophy on top of the Daytona one on a glass shelf. Well it didn’t like that. The glass shelf was cut too short and it fell through the pins and landed on top of the Daytona one. We went through about $10,000 in trophies pretty quick.

Q: This is a broad prospective question about the possible arrival of more international drivers, as well as Toyota, and maybe some more international nameplates. Obviously it’s added some more interest to the sport, but do you think there is a tipping point somewhere where it represents too much change for fans of the sport?

Burton: I think that some other series’ in the country have not benefited from having too many foreign drivers and I do believe that Americans like to pull for Americans, and Italians like to pull for Italians, and so forth. It’s not to say that Americans hate drivers from other countries. I don’t believe that by any means. But I do believe that this has been an American based series for a long time and a radical departure from that would probably not be a good thing. We should welcome anyone that has shown the ability to race at this level to be a part of it, but without a doubt, we should not limit it to people depending upon where they’re from. I don’t believe that you will see a major shift. The people that run this series, from Americans to non-Americans, I don’t believe you will. With Montoya coming in it has done some really good things for our sport and for motorsports in general, it has done something really good things. F1 fans are probably paying more attention to NASCAR and NASCAR are paying more close attention to F1, and they probably have more of an appreciation for how hard each one is. And that’s a good thing. I don’t see a major shift in this being an American sport to the point where it does start to turn people off, but I do think there is a breaking point that American fans wouldn’t be as interested as they are today.

Q: In New York last week, talking about racing in the Chase, a lot of guys, including Martin Truex Jr., said that he was racing on pins and needles. Once the Chase starts can you just race or are you conscious of where you are and where the other guys are on the track?

Burton: You are conscious but everyone’s different. I’m not going to speak for everyone, but I’m not always conscious of where everyone else is. I do pay more attention to those people today more than I did four months ago, but it is also true that it’s very clear to me in order to be successful, it matters how we run. That’s one that thing we can’t control, how other people run. But it’s clear to me that we can control how we run and everyone else controls their own performance. But it’s very clear to me that we can’t control that or our own performance always, and that’s where our attention needs to be. You can’t come into this sport and be apart of all the pressure and all of the excitement of the Chase without it being more stressful then it would be if you weren’t in it. But that’s what sports are about and that’s what makes it work.

Q: When you won at Dover after that great battle with Matt Kenseth, he came back out on the track and you guys were side-by-side, do you remember what he said to you?

Burton: I’m not sure he said anything but he gave me a high five, a sign of respect, but I don’t think either of us said anything. It was a sign of respect. Here’s a guy that pretty much dominated the race and didn’t win it but took the time to congratulate the person that did. That’s a rare thing. It meant a lot, no question. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Matt. He’s a really good person, number one. He’s a consistent performer, number two. If not the most consistent performer over the last five years and I respect that a great deal. His acknowledgement of our success meant a great deal to me.

Q: Hendrick had a lot of notoriety over the advancement of their COT program early in the season. Childress has three guys, including you, in the Chase. Is that something that fuels you guys, the lack of notoriety? Or is it something that is just a sign of the advancement of Childress since last year?

Burton: Certainly three years ago we weren’t in the position to put three teams in the Chase. We didn’t’ have a chance. We’ve advanced our company and certainly Hendrick has had a lot to do with that. They haven’t advanced our company, they haven’t helped us with that, but they have set a standard that all of the teams in NASCAR have been trying for years to match the effort and success that Hendrick has put up. So I don’t view that as some sort of inspiration through negativity, but it’s clear that every team has had to step it up to be successful. We have indeed set it up. It’s clear that we need to take another step. For every step you take, there’s another still left that you haven’t, and we need to find a way to be better. Going into last week’s race, I’m not sure any RCR team has dominated, until last week. Obviously Bowyer dominated last week, but none of us have taken a race and said, “This is mine, come take it from me.” And that’s what we need to be. We’re a hell of a lot closer than we were two years ago.

Q: Last week you touched on that adding two drivers to the Chase has made it more difficult. At New Hampshire, with the first seven drivers being Chase drivers, you finished 18th and yet you drop in the standings. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Burton: Well when you finish 18th you should drop. A team that finished 18th doesn’t deserve to win a championship. There’s no question that the more quality teams you put into the Chase the harder it will be to win it. No getting around that. The quality of the teams that we have today, taking last week, who you going to look at and say, “They can’t win it?” I understand that there are teams more of a favorite to win. If one team does win it that wasn’t supposed to, now that’d be a great surprise, but at the end of the day, who would be a big surprise if they did win the championship? All are good teams. All are well funded teams. Well run teams. They’ve all had success in their past. There’s no team you look at that can’t get it done. So having 12 of those teams versus ten does make it harder.

Q: Is last year’s victory ancient history at this point now that you have the COT? Is there any momentum that you carry into this race?

Burton: I don’t believe in that. Maybe I have a negative personality or something but momentum is a highly overused word. Momentum is generated by success. Success isn’t generated by momentum. I think that a lot of people confuse the two. I don’t care how pumped up you are, how excited your team is, how much belief you have in yourself, if it won’t go fast, it won’t go fast. That’s just the way it is. Momentum doesn’t put trophies in the cases; success puts trophies in the cases. It’s clear to me that success on this Sunday doesn’t guarantee success next Sunday. Nor does it guarantee failure. It helps you build and learn. With the more success you have the more you can have but of course it means you’re doing a good job. I don’t feel that we have any sort of advantage based on the fact that we won the race there last year. I wish I could. But the reality is that it’s a whole other world. A whole new set of rules. And we need to go earn it.

Q: You get a lot of compliments from your RCR teammates about what you’ve brought to the team, experience, and so forth. Does it seem as a natural role to you?

Burton: I enjoy being more than just the driver of the AT&T Chevrolet. I enjoy being part of the company and the opportunity to work with the other teams and trying to make the company the best it can be. I’ve always enjoyed that opportunity. Someone else has to decide whether or not I do a good job at it but yes, I’ve always enjoyed it. I don’t want to be just the driver of the No. 31; I want it to be more than that. I enjoy that. Some are burdened by it, but my personality is such that I enjoy it. I hope I do it well because I enjoy it.

Q: This vaguely related to Dale Earnhardt Jr. but I hope you can relate your own experience. How much pressure is there on a driver when you make a move from one team to another? When the performance expectation with another team may be higher, certainly not less, but how does that play on you as a young person reestablishing your reputation?

Burton: I don’t want to put words in Dale Jr.’s mouth but you want the acknowledgement that you’re good at what you do and you want people around you to believe that you’re good at what you do. You want to be part of something that is better than what you had when you left, or by the way, you wouldn’t have left. There’s a sorting out period. You sort out your role. What you were doing there and what you’ll do now. Everybody else will do that too. It is a difficult situation. It’s not an east way out. Some people think that some people think switching teams is easy. You go to battle with these guys every Sunday, every weekend, and it’s hard to walk away from that. There will be more pressure on him immediately to succeed, because he’s such a big name, and if he’s doing the right thing, and he’ll want to prove to the naysayers and himself that he did the right thing. He’s going to drive for arguably the most successful company in Cup racing. He’s going to expect results immediately and that does add pressure. There’s no way around it.

Q: In your case, did it take getting you first win with Childress to think that you did the right thing?

Burton: When I made the decision to go t o Childress, I resisted the temptation to look over my shoulder at what the No. 99 did this week to judge if I did the right thing. When I went to RCR, it was clear to me that we had work to do. We had to improve. It was clear to me that I was perhaps taking a step back short term to in the long term be successful. I had to ignore what was going on with the No. 99 and that performance to see what we were doing. We were making improvements? Were we stepping forward? That’s all I paid attention to. If I had looked at the No. 99 every week to see if I did the right thing or not, I would have been disappointed. I knew what I was stepping into and that I had to battle. I was prepared for that. Honestly, that was the only way I could be successful. Junior’s in a different situation. He’s believes that he can immediately be more successful at Hendrick Motorsports and he’s not going to have that same attitude. And there are reasons for him to believe that. I don’t think he’s wrong in believing that. It’ll be different for him than it was for me.

Q: Do you think the track changes at Dover each time you go there and in what ways?

Burton: The way the car handles seems to be different every time you go there. I don’t know if it’s the concrete or what but the racetrack consistently does the same thing during the race, but one race to the next, it always seems to be different. Which is a good thing. That’s how it should be. That’s part of what racing is all about. Adapting to challenge and things how they change. This is one place that changes from race to race as much as anywhere. And it’s all about how the car feels and how it drives.

Q: Can you talk about Joey Logano. He’s about to win the Busch East championship this weekend. Have you crossed paths with him and what have you heard? Is he on the fast track to NEXTEL Cup do you believe?

Burton: I have not crossed paths with Joey yet. I have through Mark Martin heard that Joey Logano was the next best thing coming. Mark Martin, I’m going to say four years ago, said that Joey Logano was going to be the guy to do it. When Mark tells me that, I have reason to believe him. He’s an incredible judge of talent. He identified Joey a long time ago and so I watched because of that. He when he’s ready and old enough, there will be opportunities at the Cup level for Joey, there’s no doubt about it. He’s earned it and he’s driven his whole life. He’s succeeded in every form of motorsports as far as I can tell that he’s been in and he’ll deserve a shot.

Gary Camp: Thank you Jeff for taking the time to do this. We’ll see you soon. Thank you all for calling in. Thanks again. We’ll see you all in Dover.