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NASCAR WCUP: Post Race Notes and Quotes, Pepsi 400, Jeff Burton (Winner)

2 July 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

JEFF BURTON --99-- Exide Batteries Taurus -- HOW DID YOU HOLD THEM OFF WITH TWO TIRES? "Our car worked exceptionally well. We worked really hard yesterday on getting the car to drive well. We made a 52-lap run to find out exactly what the car would do and made some adjustments to the chassis based on that. I think yesterday's preparation was key for us. Two tires got us our track position, got us in front of the crowd and it was very difficult to pass. Passing was hard and we were fast enough to block and stay in the way enough to be a pain."

WHAT KIND OF BLOCKS DID YOU GIVE AT THE END? "We had to give some big blocks. Taking the green, I knew, would be real big. I knew going down the back straightaway would be real big. Once I held him off on the front straightaway I knew he'd still get a run on me. Fortunately, we blocked him enough. I stayed in his way enough to be a nuisance and that was real important. That was the race."

JEFF BURTON PRESS CONFERENCE: "If Dale would have pushed me out of the way, then by the code of ethics that I live by, that means that I could push him out of the way a little bit later. Dale's been a clean race car driver. There's really nothing you can do about it, you just run as fast as you can, block all you can. Had he wanted to wreck me I sure gave him the opportunity on the front straightaway on the restart and he chose not to hit me, so I wasn't too worried about it. But you can't worry about it. You can't worry about what the guy behind you is gonna do because you can't control it. I just did my best to block him."

WOULD YOU HAVE BEEN MORE CONCERNED IF IT WAS EARNHARDT BEHIND YOU ON THE RESTART? "Not really. I've driven those guys clean all the years I've been in Winston Cup and they've driven me clean. Like I said, the code of ethics for a seven-time champion or a one-time champion or a one-time winner or a no-time winner. That's the way I race and that's generally the way people race me. You just can't worry about it. If somebody's gonna knock you out of the way, then they're gonna knock you out of the way. All you can do is try to get away from it."

WHAT'S THE CODE OF ETHICS ON BLOCKING? "It appears to me that at Daytona and Talladega you just block all you can to keep a guy from getting besides you. If the nose of his car ever gets past your bumper, then you're dead. It just puts all the air on your spoiler and it kills you. All these races get won by people blocking each other and it's just what you do. I don't know that we're like and Indy car program where you really worry too much about blocking. You block all you can and you weave and you swerve and do whatever you can to win."

IS EXPERIENCE MORE IMPORTANT AT RESTRICTOR PLATE RACES? "I think it is and, unfortunately, the only way to get experience is to get beat a lot and I sure have made more wrong moves in restrictor plate races than I've made right moves. The best I've ever done in a restrictor-plate race from start to finish was tonight and I believe that's because I've done a lot of wrong things. That's the only way I know how to learn, unfortunately, is do it the wrong way first and learn from that or watch somebody else do it wrong and learn from that. We finished third, second and first here the last three races and in each one of those races I saw how the race got won and we were able to apply that tonight."

ON POINT STRUCTURE. "We put every bit of effort we know how to put in to winning the championship. The best way we know to do that is to win as many races as possible. We have not done a good job this year and we have not been as reliable as we need to be at times and we haven't been as competitive as we need to be at times. The last six weeks has been a tremendous struggle for us. We care about points. We want to win the championship. I don't question the point structure because you have to build and position your team around the point structure and if we aren't as competitive as we need to be or reliable as we need to be or if I'm getting us in too many wrecks to win the championship, then we need to fix those things. So, the number of wins is really important. We come to try to win every single week, but it's also real important to win a championship and every week we need to be strong."

YOU'RE THE OLDEST DRIVER SINCE MARK MARTIN IN APRIL TO WIN A RACE? "Man, I was feeling pretty young until you said that. I turned 33 two days ago. I see Dale Earnhardt driving harder and more aggressive than I've seen him the last three years. Mark Martin has every bit of intensity that he had when I first met him. Dale Jarrett, he is what he is, he's a Winston Cup champion and a competitor and I'm not about to take that away and feel like they're ready to bow over to us. There is a youth movement in NASCAR. There's a push to bring real young drivers into Winston Cup and teach them how to learn and how to race in Winston Cup and they've been a real pain in the butt. They've been hard to beat. The success that Matt has had, and the success that Earnhardt has had, Stewart, Gordon -- it's incredible that guys that young -- it came way more natural to them than it's come for me. Having said that, I believe that if Dale Jarrett and Dale Earnhardt and Mark Martin and an old guy like myself, if we continue to work hard and care about our program as much as a young kid, we may be a little smarter. We may not be as aggressive at times, but we may be smarter. Dale Earnhardt's in a great position to win the championship and he may be the oldest active driver, I don't really get into age, but he's sure older than me. I don't see him bowing over by any means."

IS THERE SATISFACTION TONIGHT FOR NOT GIVING UP? "This race is really big for our race team. We needed a kick in the pants and we got it. I did a great job driving and Frank did a great job of making some calls and setting the car up. Everybody did a great job to get this done and we were able as a team to beat two of the best in restrictor-plate racing and I take a lot of pride in that. I don't take pride in it because I'm younger than them, I take pride in it because we were able to achieve something against some pretty tough obstacles."

THOUGHTS ON THE LAST CAUTION. "I did not want to see the caution come out. I thought we were better off staying under green. The guy that's leading the race on a restart at a restrictor-plate race is a sitting duck and its hard to do a whole lot about it. I was able to watch him and turn when he turned and block him. But all of that just worked perfect. Some of that was luck, some of that was skill, some of that was just being too dumb to not care about wrecking. It all just worked out. We didn't want to see a caution and being in the front I didn't think was the place to be."

SIGNIFICANCE OF A RESTRICTOR-PLATE WIN. "I think it's important for our team and Roush Racing to be able to win at every race track. That's our goal -- to be competitive at every single kind of race track. When the lift gate goes down on the truck we want people to look at the Roush Racing team and say those guys are gonna be a threat. When you can win on a road course, win on a speedway and win on a short track and win at a place like Texas, then you have the complete team. We still aren't there, but maybe this takes us a step closer."

FRANK STODDARD, Crew Chief -- ON TAKING TWO TIRES. "I hit Buddy and said, 'Well, now what are we gonna do,' and he didn't say anything. He wasn't much help. But, I had watched the race all night long and all night long it seemed to be five or six car breakaways at the front of the field. I felt like 10 or 12 cars would put on two tires, based on what Gordon did earlier. He was running 27th, came in and went out seventh and stayed in the lead draft the rest of the night. I felt like everybody saw that on the screen and I firmly expected 12 guys to put on two tires. They might not be all the lead guys, but I figured guys in the back of the field that saw what Gordon had done would do the same thing and put themselves back in position to win. It seemed to be to me, other than maybe the 88, a huge track position night. We never slipped further than fifth or sixth all night. Guys that started in the back like Gordon, he didn't move up until the first pit stop. It just seemed like a lot of track position, so, inevitably, I'm only surprised that more people didn't put on two tires and after they didn't put on two tires and Elliott was running eighth and he was the first guy with four tires, I was a little more nervous, but, at the same time, the 88 car had been real good all night out front. When somebody shuffled him back, I think Bill Elliott shuffled him back midway through the race, he commented to his crew that he was real tight behind everybody. Earlier in the night he was setting sail up there and everybody else was complaining about being tight except for him. That stuck in my mind that we needed to be at the front. Jeff had been complaining about being a little bit tight and I felt like if we got to the front it would be hard to wrestle the lead away."

Text Provided By Ford

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