Winston Teleconference: Jeff Burton

Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 99 Citgo SUPERGARD Taurus, was this week's guest on the NASCAR Winston Cup teleconference. Burton spoke about the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series presented by Dodge and this issue of helmets on pit road for crew members.

JEFF BURTON --99-- Citgo SUPERGARD Taurus -- HOW HAS THE WEEKLY RACING SERIES AFFECTED YOUR CAREER? "This is a really big announcement as far as I'm concerned because without the weekly racing series, we don't have not only a place for drivers to learn how do to what it is that we do, but also mechanical. The weekly racing series not only gives drivers like myself and opportunity to go out and learn how to win and learn how to lose -- learn how to do all the things you need to be able to do when you get to the level that we all want to be at, but it also brings a lot of other people into our sport too, which we desperately need. It gives an opportunity for everyone in America to get into motorsports. Minorities and everybody has an opportunity at a lower level to get started and that's where we need to start all that stuff. So, in my opinion, this is a really big deal. I'm really excited about it because I think it's viable for our continued success in this sport."

WOULD YOU HAVE CONSIDERED THE TRUCK SERIES IF IT HAD BEEN AVAILABLE AT THE TIME WHEN YOU WERE COMPETING AT SOUTH BOSTON SPEEDWAY? "Oh, no question. The truck series has presented another wonderful opportunity for young drivers and aspiring owners. There are a lot of opportunities that the truck series has created and at a reduced cost from what the Busch Series is, although not a whole lot reduced. So, it's opened the doors for a lot of people that otherwise wouldn't have had a chance. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, when I was in the weekly racing series and I wanted to make the next step, my opportunity was in Busch Grand National racing. We didn't have a truck series. The other opportunity was in the dash division. We looked at the Busch thing and we thought that having the opportunity to race against Winston Cup drivers at race tracks that Winston Cup drivers race on would provide us the opportunity to understand if we could do this or not. And, also, if we could do it, it would provide the exposure that was necessary to gain attention. So, the truck series does all those things as well and I think the truck series would have been a very viable option for me."

WHAT DO YOU FEEL THE WEEKLY RACING SERIES DOES FOR THE GROWTH OF THE SPORT? "This is, in my opinion, the seed of the sport. We get to the point where we are now, where we have a lot of people watching Winston Cup racing and we have a lot of people watching Busch racing and truck racing. But to continue to have that and continue to have the quality of racing that we've all come to expect, there has to be a feeder system. There has to be a way, not only for drivers, but for everyone in the sport to learn the sport. This enables the seed to continue to be planted. From the planting of that seed, it grows or it doesn't grow, but you can't have it without the seed. So I really think this just strengthens the sport and it shows continued effort by corporate America and continued support by corporate America in times that are tough, that they believe in motorsports and they believe not only in the big-time part of motorsports and what we do on Sundays in front of millions of people, but they also believe in the grassroots level of it. It is a part of our culture. Saturday night racing and Friday night racing across the country is a really big deal and corporate America has embraced it for years. Winston has done a great job of getting it to the point of where it is today and Dodge will take over and they'll do a great job with it as well."

WHAT IS YOUR FEELING ABOUT HELMETS ON PIT ROAD? "We've done a lot of research. We at Roush Racing, collectively, the last couple of days have really gotten into what's available to us and looking at what our guys can wear that won't be a disadvantage to them -- that they feel comfortable in and also provides the safety factor. I am in favor, and of course I don't understand all the ins and outs of it, but I am in favor of NASCAR stepping into it and trying to help the situation. We've helped the situation for years by slowing down pit road speed and by trying to split the cars up on who is on pit road, and all of those have been a tremendous benefit. How can we take it to the next level? This is one of those things that when we talk about safety, it's really hard to know if you need to take it to the next level until something bad happens and then when it does happen, how do we jump on it and respond to it in a really good way? So, I'd love to see us make some sort of rule about minimal apparel that you have to have on pit road and also on the pit boxes. Then, if the helmets are a disadvantage, they're a disadvantage to everyone and, as long as they're a disadvantage to everyone, it really doesn't matter. Then it will turn into the same thing that we do every week -- who can come up with the best helmet and the lightest helmet? That's what we do with our race cars every week, we work within the rules to make our car work better than other people's. It doesn't fall directly on NASCAR's shoulders anymore than a HANS or a Hutchens or anything else. My belief is that we as a community, like I've said all along, need to be looking at pit road just like we're looking at our race cars. How can we collectively do pit road better and do it quickly. I'm not in favor of NASCAR being out there by themselves. I think we need to do it together and together we can come up with answers and ideas. I don't think NASCAR ought to have to take all the brunt and all of the responsibility. We have crew members that have helmets on pit road today. NASCAR didn't tell us not to wear helmets, we can wear helmets. Even if NASCAR doesn't make it mandatory, I hope that it's mandatory at Roush Racing and I hope that everyone in racing will look at that and say it ought to be mandatory at our own shops as well. I'm working hard to try to find something that my guys can wear. Putting pressure on the team to wear things, what that does is -- I'm here at Greenville-Pickens today testing. One of the things we're testing is what I have to do to wear the HANS with my current seat situation. That's one of the reasons we're here. That's not the only reason we're here, but the reason we're doing that is I want to be able to look at everything. Well, part of the reason we're doing that is NASCAR has stepped in and said, 'You have to wear one of these two things.' So I'm having to adapt, I'm having to go do something, and if we made people wear helmets people would adapt and in a year from now it would be a non-issue. You just learn how to do it and deal with it and go about your business. The fear is that it's a disadvantage. When you've got a competitive person and make no mistake about it, these tire changers and tire carriers, they are competitive people. They want to win and they want to change that tire faster than anybody else. If you give them something that slows them down, they don't want that, so we've got to find a way to give them something that doesn't slow them down and also not give them an option -- 'you're gonna have to wear it.' I think every car owner in the garage could step up within their own shop and say, 'You've got to wear it.' And, at the same time, work with NASCAR to take some pressure off the car owners and jointly put it on each other's shoulders and say, 'We all agree that our crewman ought to wear it, so let's just make them wear it.' That includes fire suits and everything else in my opinion. If we're gonna do it, let's do it. Let's get after it. I've been on my wife for a long time. I think she ought to have a fire suit on while sitting on the pit box. She ain't gonna do it because she likes to look good and likes to dress up and buy all those clothes that cost me too much money (laughing), but I'd like to see everybody that's on pit road have a fire suit on. I mean, why not?"

ON NASCAR SAFETY. "I want to make it clear, and I've said this all along, but the approach to safety within NASCAR right now is running at full speed. It's my belief that we are doing things at a rapid pace and I'm really happy with that. I have confidence in where we're heading. We talked about it coming down here. I told Frank (Stoddard) that I bet all day and all week that these things were gonna be going on and I believe that from the bottom of my heart."