Jeff Burton finished 15th in the earlier race at Richmond. Credit: Autostock

Q&A: Jeff Burton

Jeff Burton is in 10th place in the Nextel Cup Series standings going into Richmond. Burton holds a 30-point lead on 11th-place Kasey Kahne, but he's only two points behind ninth-place Mark Martin and 15 points behind eighth-place Tony Stewart.

Q: A lot of suspense this week for you and Kasey and obviously everybody else who is trying to nail down a Chase spot. What is it going to take for you to hang on to this 10th position?

Burton: If you look at Richmond, really, if you think about Stewart or Mark, myself or Kahne, it's a matter of going out and running well. None of us will have a chance of being in the Chase if we don't run well, unless someone were to have trouble. But we can't control what other people do. The only thing we can do is control what we do. Certainly having the opportunity, you know, at Richmond is really exciting and it's what it ought to be. For us, we're just focusing on going there and putting forth our best effort we can, and that's really all we can do.

Q: Is it possible anybody would be admitting any stress going into Richmond? The guys who seem stressed are the crew chiefs of say, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson who really wanted to go into it even better, even though they were sold into the deal already. What do you think that the stress level will be?

Burton: I think that stress is part of our sport and certainly there's a level of stress that all of us are dealing with and, by the way, there's a level of stress that, you know, Carl Edwards is dealing with that he's not in it. Given the choice, I'm going to take this stress over the stress he's had to deal with this week. I think that, again, and I've said it before, when the teams and the drivers and everybody involved on this end of the sport is under a tremendous amount of stress, that means the fans are watching one hell of a show. And that's how it should be.

Q: And do you plan to do anything different this week heading into Richmond, look things over twice, do anything extra, anything different yourself?

Inside the Numbers Jeff Burton in 2006 Race Start Finish Daytona 1 32 Fontana 6 5 Las Vegas 8 7 Atlanta 3 25 Bristol 18 34 Martinsville 20 33 Texas 21 6 Phoenix 37 9 Talladega 40 4 Richmond 15 15 Darlington 20 9 Charlotte 11 6 Dover 17 4 Pocono 5 9 Michigan 12 11 Sonoma 13 7 Daytona 39 15 Chicago 1 2 Loudon 2 7 Pocono 6 9 Indianapolis 1 15 Watkins Glen 16 11 Michigan 1 42 Bristol 2 9 Fontana 7 16

Burton: Well, if I'm not doing it already, then shame on me. You know, I prepare the same way every week. I've been sick; I'll be glad to get rid of that, I'll tell you that. I felt really bad at California, and [Monday] I felt bad, [but I] feel like I'm starting to turn the corner [Tuesday]. Short of trying to get [to] feeling better, there's really nothing I'm going to do different.

Every race I go to is the most important race that we've got. And I prepare for every race the same way. So when you do get yourself in a situation like we're in this week where there is an important race, to me, the race five weeks ago was just as important, and they all pay the same amount of points. So we're in the situation we're in because as a team, we've done a good job, and as a team, we haven't done a good job in some areas.

So what do you do about that, when you go to the next race, you focus, you prepare, go there 100 percent committed with that race and only that race in mind. So because of the way I prepare and the way my team prepares for a race, I don't think we have to do anything different going into this one.

Q: Should the driver who has the most wins out of 26 races automatically make the Chase or not?

Burton: I don't think so. I think that our points system is based on consistency. I think our points system, you have to remember, we run long races and reliability is an issue. You know, we go back, and you think about the year Bill Elliot the won all those races and Darryl [Waltrip] won the championship, consistency is important.

And whatever NASCAR decides the points system should be, it's up to the teams to take that and use it to their advantage. So really, as far as I'm concerned, the number of wins that you have is obviously very important, but what really matters is how many points do you have. And I'm OK with that. I think that that's been the nature of our sport for years. That's how it's always been, and I think that's how it should be. That's easy for me to say because I haven't won a race this year, but in the year that I did win five or six races, I still felt the same way.

I think that the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl last year, but they didn't have the best regular season. They found a way to do it and put themselves in the playoffs to find a way to win the Super Bowl. You know, nobody stands up and says, hey, the Indianapolis Colts should have been the Super Bowl champions because they had the best regular season. It's utilizing the system, it's taking advantage of the system, it's understanding it and whoever does the best job within the system is a deserving champion.

Q: On Saturday is there something in you that's a bit more mathematical thinking I have to do this and that or can you really just go out there and sort of race as hard as you can?

Burton: Well, I think the thing that is important to understand is that we go out every week to try to do the very best we can. We don't have a magic button that we can push that can take us from 12th to third. What we have to do going into Richmond is prepare our car the best way we know how, spend all day Friday working on the car, figuring out how to get it drive the best way, and then race and let the race unfold and let the strategy unfold and it dictates.

Now certainly, there's no question it's more important for us to finish in front of Mark Martin, to finish in front of Kasey Kahne, to try to finish in front of Tony Stewart. That's what we have to do. And at the same time, if a guy that's, you know, six or seventh in points, he has a problem early in the race, we need to understand that, too. The main focus of this race is to transfer into the Chase.

We have to assume that no one is going to have trouble. We have to assume that if we're going to transfer in, we're going to have to race our way in. So we go into the race with that in mind, as the race unfolds and as things start to happen, then the picture will become more clear of exactly what we do have to do. And then the strategy may change, the way we have to pit the car, the way we have to take chances on trying to pass somebody, those kind of things may evolve.

Q: You're talking about looking at the standings and how close it is between you and Mark and Tony Stewart and Hamlin, but the fact of the matter is you're in 10th place, is there a stigma about being the guy on the bubble?

Burton: We're in. I don't know. I think the stigma is on the guy at 11th because he isn't. I'm not being cocky and saying we're definitely in because we are not. It's not done yet by any means. Certainly being on the bubble is not where you want to be. I would be a whole lot more comfortable if I was where Harvick is but, I don't know, I think that for the fans maybe there's a stigma, hey, he's on the bubble.

Here is the way I look at it to sum it up really quickly. We hold the spot. It's ours. They have got to take it from me. And it's our job to go take it from the people that are ahead of us. So is it a stigma that we're 10th, I don't know. The only thing I know is that we've done a really nice job of positioning ourselves to accomplish our first goal, which is to get in the Chase. Now it all falls on one race, and you know, everybody is looking at it as this last race is everything, I'm smart enough to know that where we finish in the Daytona 500 the first race of the year, is every bit as important as this race.

	Jeff Burton Credit: Autostock
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This race, all the pressure and all the math falls on the one place and everybody will look at Richmond and say, well, this happened at Richmond and he got in and he didn't get in. Hey, there's a way all 11 of us get in. Think about this. I'm only 59 points away from being 400 points within the leader. You have no idea what's going to happen in this race. So when it's all said and done, everybody is going to say, well, whatever happened at Richmond, that was the deciding factor. That's not true.

It is part of the deciding factor. It is one race within 26 races, and the work that we've done to get us to this point is why we're in this situation and the things that we didn't do well up to this point is why we're in this situation.

Q: Eight Chevrolets in the top 10, any reason for that?

Burton: I honestly don't know. Chevrolet has worked very hard on their program, they have really good race teams. Obviously Hendrick is a mainstay. Every year they bring it. The Childress organization has stepped up their program this year without a doubt and the Gibbs program without a doubt. We do this with very old technology.

So Chevy does a great job of working with us to provide us with the things that we need. But they did last year, too, and we didn't have a car in the Chase. So again, if I was on the team's shoulders, you know, the Chevy teams have done a really good job this year.

Q: What's the feeling, how do you feel now at this point in the season, that you have a shot to get in the Chase, as compared to maybe like last year or the year before?

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Burton: That's a great question, just because everybody talks about the pressure of the situation that we're in, I can tell you, I feel a whole lot less pressure today than I did last year or the year before, where we didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting in. It's a whole lot different, and it's the kind of pressure that I like. You know, we received a tremendous amount of media this year because we have turned RCR program around in the right direction.

But at the end of the day, we're still not where we need to be yet and what we're focusing on is making sure we are where we need to be. And it feels good, it feels really good to be in the situation where we feel like we have a chance. We go into Richmond with a chance to get in last year, we were mathematically possible to get in, but it was pretty much impossible for it to happen for us. You know, this year we have a real chance.

Q: Everybody has been alluding to and you mentioned yourself how tight the race is and what could happen at Richmond and there will be beating and banging during the race. Do you think NASCAR might wind up getting involved where someone puts a fender to another competitor?

Burton: I think NASCAR is consistent in the way they call these races and I think they will be consistent Saturday night. When you're dealing with Kasey Kahne and Mark Martin, and you know, Tony Stewart, and you're dealing with people that certainly will go race you as hard as they know how, but you're not dealing with people that are going to do things that are unethical.

I understand why people, you know, look at it and say, man, all this could happen, and it could. But I think that the chances for that are pretty small. I mean, certainly as close as it is, we could get into a situation where it's ten laps to go and you've got to pass that guy in front of you. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, you know, this is one race and there's not one person, with the exception of Mark, that's not one person that isn't going to go do it again next year.

I think most people have a grasp of the situation as well as the understanding of the consequences when things don't go well and when you do what you shouldn't do. So the possibilities for people acting out of the ordinary, the possibility is there, but for the most part, you've seen a tremendous amount of respect amongst the front leaders this year and I think that will continue.