JEFF BURTON QUOTES:
Atlanta Motor Speedway is one of the fastest tracks on the circuit. Is it fun to race there with all of that speed?
“I think Atlanta has the biggest difference from qualifying to racing than anywhere we go. When you drive that car in qualifying, it is so wide open. It’s unbelievable what it feels like. Then in race trim it’s just like any other race track. It’s just that you have all of these different grooves. You can run on the top, you can run on the bottom or you can run in the middle. It’s just a lot of fun to race at Atlanta.”

You’ve said it’s almost like Atlanta has multiple personalities -- what do you mean by that?
“When you are qualifying at Atlanta, it almost has the personality of Bristol. I know this sounds crazy, but it is so ridiculously fast in qualifying trim that it feels like that. Once you get into race trim, though, it turns into Darlington. I mean, the track surface gets slick and you can run on the top or run on the bottom. It’s the biggest change between the two than anyplace we go.”

How do you find the right groove to run at Atlanta?
“You’ve got to just keep looking, but most of all you have to be willing to go searching to find that groove that will work for you. Experience teaches you that when your car is reacting a certain way that you can try something different and have faith to try it. The reason we don’t have a lot of multiple grooves at some racetracks is that if you go high you’ll wreck. At Atlanta you have to have faith that the racetrack will hold you. Turns one and two at Atlanta, you run as close to the wall as you do at Darlington. Then turns three and four we still run on the bottom, but it’s just having that faith that the track will hold you.”