UAW-GM Quality 500 - Jeff Burton Notes

Jeff Burton
America Online Racing
Event Preview Fact Sheet

Event/Date: UAW-GM 500/October 16, 2004
Venue: Lowe’s Motor Speedway – Concord, NC

NOTES:

· This Week’s Race Car at Lowe’s Motor Speedway (chassis No. 108) was last run at Lowe’s Motor Speedway during the 2004 Coca-Cola 600, finishing 39th after being involved in an accident. Other 2004 season races include Rockingham (2/04), Darlington (3/04) and the Nextel Open at Charlotte (5/04) Best Start – 13th (Nextel Open 5/04) Best Finish – sixth (Nextel Open 5/04)

· 35th Anniversary Celebration … RCR will be celebrating its 35 years in NASCAR this weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The occasion is being marked by a variety of initiatives throughout the three days of racing in the Charlotte area, including a special Richard Childress Racing/Lowe’s Motor Speedway Pole Night ticket that is being used for general gate admission on Thursday. All 2004 RCR entries have been carrying the official 35th anniversary logo this year and will carry the same logo this weekend, along with all three NASCAR Cup cars running retro paint schemes.

· Burton going Retro? …. The No. 30 AOL Chevrolet will be sporting a different look in this weekend’s UAW-GM Quality 500. As part of RCR’s 35th Anniversary celebration, all three of the team’s NASCAR Cup cars will feature retro paint schemes to highlight the past 35 years of RCR in the sport. The No. 30 AOL Chevrolet will carry the 1983 paint scheme that was driven by Ricky Rudd and captured RCR’s first NASCAR Cup victory at Riverside International Raceway in Riverside, Calif. The No. 29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet will feature the Wrangler paint scheme that was driven by Dale Earnhardt and helped RCR capture its first NASCAR Cup championship in 1986. The No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet will feature the 1995 Silver Select design, which was the first-ever special paint scheme design in NASCAR and was also driven by Earnhardt. The No. 2 and 21 Busch cars will carry the RCR 35th Anniversary logo on their hoods to mark the celebration, as well.

· Ride with Richard Winner … Bob Buell of Camden, Maine, is the lucky grand prize winner of RCR’s “Ride with Richard” promotion as part of the 35th Anniversary celebration. Buell will ride around Lowe’s Motor Speedway with Childress himself in the retro No. 3 35th Anniversary Chevrolet painted in the CRC colors Childress drove in the the mid 70’s. The event will take place Friday, Oct. 15 at 11 a.m. The grand prize also includes round trip airfare, hotel accommodations and a VIP weekend at the track with RCR for Buell and a guest. Buell entered the contest by signing up to be a RCR fan club member at rcrracing.com.

· RCR pacing the Field … The Chevrolet Monte Carlo that will serve as the pace car for the UAW-GM 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway will carry the RCR 35th Anniversary logo on the hood.

· Signing away … Burton will be signing autographs 11 a.m.–noon Thursday, Oct. 13, as part of Action Performances’ Fan Appreciation Day. The event will take place at the company’s offices located at 6301 Performance Drive, a quarter-mile southeast of Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord. Also scheduled to sign are RCR teammates Kevin Harvick (9-10a.m.) and Kerry Earnhardt (noon-1 p.m.) Tickets for each autograph session will be limited to 200 and will be dispensed on a first-come, first-served basis. The first 200 people in line each morning will be eligible to receive session tickets.

· Speed Zone … Jeff Burton will be appearing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway’s Speed Zone hospitality tent for a question and answer session at 2:45 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16, prior to the UAW-GM 500. Others making appearances include team owner Richard Childress, RCR legend Chocolate Myers and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. For additional information please contact Lowe’s Motor Speedway at 704/455-3200.

· Catch the action … The UAW-GM 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race will broadcast live at 7 p.m. EDT Saturday, October 16, on NBC, PRN and XM Radio. Qualifying for the UAW-GM 500 will be broadcast live at 7 p.m. EDT Thursday, October 14, on SPEED, PRN and XM Radio.

JEFF BURTON QUOTES:

On being part of RCR’s 35th Anniversary – “Certainly Richard has been a mainstay in the sport for a long time. In the time that he has been here he has won an incredible amount of championships and put teams in the top 10 in points, so his record speaks for itself. He’s done this for a long period of time, but he hasn’t made any enemies doing it. A lot of people look up to and respect him and really enjoy being around him. There are a lot of times when Richard has been in the middle of things that he seems to have always conducted himself in the highest standard. He just has a way of dealing with issues that could be nasty for a lot of people. He just makes them a lot easier to deal with. There have been a lot of situations where he could have handled himself differently and people would look at him differently, but he always seems to find a way to regain his composure and present his case in a way that is respectful and people look up to him for it. Richard Childress is a credit to the sport and it’s an honor to be driving for him.

Does it mean more to win at Charlotte, “at home”? “I don’t necessarily think so. I think each driver has a track they feel is their home track, where they really like to do well. I don’t know, to me Charlotte isn’t any different than anywhere else because of it being “home”, but Charlotte is an extremely difficult track. It’s hard to get your car to handle the way you want it to and it’s a tough track to drive. Because of that, you take a lot of pride in running well and especially in winning at Charlotte.

Nice to be home, but is it more hectic? “Charlotte is such a busier weekend than our typical travel weekend. I think everyone thinks because you are at home that it’s easy for you to do things, so it’s a tremendous amount of pull and pressure on your time. Normally, the Charlotte races are some of the busiest weekends of the year for sure.”