Jeff Burton
No. 29 Holiday Inn Chevrolet
Event Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 – April 20, 2007
Venue: Phoenix International Raceway – Avondale, Ariz.
NOTES:
This Week’s Race Car at Phoenix International Raceway … Jeff Burton will pilot Chassis No. 070 from the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) stable in this weekend’s Bashas’ Supermarkets 200. This is a brand new Holiday Inn Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS.
Good Run for Holiday Inn … Last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, the Holiday Inn Racing Team notched their fifth consecutive top-10 finish and sixth of the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series season. The No. 29 Holiday Inn Chevy has an average finish of 9.8 so far this season.
Track Stat … Burton has competed in four Busch Series races at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR), completing 100 percent of the laps. He has an average starting position of 10.5 and an average finishing spot of 7.8. Additionally, Burton boasts two top-five and three top-10 finishes at the one-mile desert oval and has led 148 laps.
RCR Busch Cars at Phoenix … In 19 previous Busch Series starts at PIR, RCR has posted one win (Kevin Harvick, April 2006), one pole (Harvick, November 2003), nine top-five and 10 top-10 finishes. RCR cars have also led 229 laps.
In the Loop … According to NASCAR’s loop data statistics, Burton leads the NASCAR Busch Series in the Fastest Driver Late in a Run category. His average running position of 2.500 is the ranking of each driver during the last 25 percent of laps run since a pit stop.
Double Duty … Burton will pull double duty this weekend at PIR. On Friday, he will race the No. 29 Holiday Inn Chevrolet in the Busch Series and Saturday will pilot the No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Friday Night Lights … Live coverage of the Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway will take the green flag Friday, April 20 beginning at 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The race will be televised live on ESPN2 and broadcast worldwide on Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the ninth of 35 points-paying races on the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series schedule will be televised live on SPEED Friday, April 20 at 5:30 p.m. EDT.
JEFF BURTON QUOTES:
This is the first weekend where you are running the Cup and Busch double with two different types of cars with the Car of Tomorrow competing in the Cup race. Does that create any issues?
“I have tried hard to work my schedule where I didn’t run a Car of Tomorrow race in the Cup car and the Busch car on the same weekend but I don’t know if it is going to make that big of a difference. The cars are drastically different in the horsepower they make. They are drastically different to begin with so I am not all that concerned with it. In the Car of Tomorrow races I wanted to really focus on that program but this is one of those races that I couldn’t pass up. Phoenix is so much fun. I have been able to win out there several times. I just wanted a chance to work on me a little bit. I want a chance to run the Busch car so I can experiment with my driving in the Busch Series. That’s something I can’t take the time to do in the Cup car. Also, our Busch Series car runs well. Any time you have the chance to sit in the seat of something that will run fast then that is something that is hard to pass up.”
Why is it that you always run well at Phoenix?
“I don’t know why. I really like Phoenix; it’s a lot of fun. It’s kind of a mix between a short track and an intermediate track. The track has good speed but it also becomes really slick so handling becomes a premium. It’s a really good mixture of a big track and a small track.”
