October 14, 2008
By Allen Madding
Saturday night in Concord, North Carolina, South Boston, Virginia’s Jeff Burton let it be known that to win the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship, someone will have to wrestle it away from him. Burton struck pay dirt in the Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway after leading 58 of the night’s 334 laps, for his second win of the 2008 season. Coupled with seven top-fives and 17 top-tens, Burton now sits second in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings a mere 69 points behind Jimmie Johnson.
Burton is no stranger to competing for points or battling for NASCAR titles.
Burton finished the 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup Series fourth in the championship points driving Jack Roush’s No. 99 Exide Batteries Ford. In 1998 and 1999, he finished the season fifth.
In 2000, Burton was in the thick of the title fight, finishing third in the points compiling a pole, four wins, 15 top-fives, and 22 top-tens. In fact, Burton has competed in NASCAR’s Cup Series for 16 years. In that time, he has finished in the top-ten in championship points seven times. This season stands to push his career to finishing in the top-ten championship points half of his Cup Series career.
At 41 years old, Burton has 20 years experience competing in NASCAR’s top-three divisions. His experience and ability teamed with the competitiveness of the cars Richard Childress Racing has been supplying puts Jeff Burton in position to be a solid threat over the remaining races in the Chase for the Cup.
Saturday’s night win spotlighted the performance of the AT&T No. 31 team as crew chief Scott Miller’s gamble to take one can of gas and not change any tires under the final caution gave Burton the track position to be sitting out front when the green flag flew, and Burton quickly lauded praise on Miller’s decision.
If Jeff Burton were to capture the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup title, who could make a better champion? Burton is the same guy on the track, in the garage, and away from the track. He is not leaving tersely worded notes on other driver’s airplanes or trying to start fistfights in other driver’s garage areas. He is not a driver that is in the news for run-ins with the law at NASCAR venues. He has never been flashy or the quick sound bite of the week for ESPN. Unlike many of his contemporaries in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series,
Burton has manned up to his mistakes over the years and accepted the recourse for his actions straight on. Survey the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series garage, and you will find that nobody has a beef with Jeff Burton. He is a champion quality driver and a good representative for his team, his sponsors, and the sport as a whole.
Nothing could be better for the sport than for Jeff Burton to capture the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship. And, several drivers competing in the series would be well served to study Jeff Burton’s example and model themselves after him.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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