Race 2 Win: Pepsi 400 - Jeff Burton Notes

Nextel Cup Series

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Pepsi 400 - Jeff Burton Notes

Jeff Burton
No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet
Event Preview Fact Sheet

Event/Date: Pepsi 400 – July 2, 2005
Venue: Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, Fla.

NOTES:

This Week’s Race Car at Daytona International Speedway … Jeff Burton will race chassis No. 135 from the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) stable, a new car for the 2005 season. After finishing second in this car in the Gatorade Duel at Daytona, Burton lined up sixth for the 2005 Daytona 500, where a broken rear end gear resulted in a 23rd place finish. It was also run earlier this season at Talladega where Burton started 27th and finished 10th.

Former Winner, Stat Facts … Burton is a former winner at the famed Daytona International Speedway. He claimed victory under the lights in the 2000 Pepsi 400. In 23 starts at Daytona International Raceway, Burton has posted one win, five top-five and seven top – 10 finishes.

Meet the Driver …. Burton will be signing autographs at the Cingular Wireless store located in front of the Volusia County Mall from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Thurs., June 30. In addition, fans can win give-away items, courtesy of Cingular Wireless.

Birthday Boy … Burton will celebrate his 38th birthday Wednesday, June 29.

RCR Rocks Daytona … Dating back to 1986, RCR has won six poles and owns 22 total victories at DIS, including 10 straight (1990-1999) Twin 125 wins with Dale Earnhardt. All totaled, RCR has won five Bud Shootouts, 13 Twin 125 qualifying races, two Pepsi 400s and one Daytona 500. Additionally, Dale Earnhardt Jr., won the Feb. 2002 Busch Series race at Daytona driving a car fielded by RCR.

Make it Four, RCR … Kerry Earnhardt will attempt to qualify the No. 33 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet for the Pepsi 400, making it four entries for RCR.

Up to Speed… The Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway can be seen live Saturday, July 2 beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on NBC and heard live on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 17th of 36 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series events will air live on TNT Friday, July 1 at 4:30 p.m. EDT and will also be broadcast live on MRN and XM Satellite Radio.

JEFF BURTON QUOTES:
You race in Daytona during Speedweeks and then again in July, is it almost like racing two different tracks? “I think it is, but some of that has changed being that we race at night in July. The track is obviously much cooler at night than it is during the day, so a lot of that is off-set by the cooler temperatures at night. But the handling is much more difficult in the Fourth of July race. It’s harder to get your car to drive well. We end up out of the throttle a lot more than we do in February. Handling is very important at Daytona. It’s important in February, but for the last few years it has been really, really big and it’s magnified for the Fourth of July race.”

What are your thoughts on qualifying at Daytona now that NASCAR has made this an impound race? “I would imagine the cars that are in the top-35 in points won’t even know how fast they are going to be in qualifying until we go run it. What will happen is we will work on race trim the entire practice session. I don’t even know if we will ever make a qualifying run. We’ll just work on race set-up in order to get your car driving well, then tape it up, put four tires on it and go qualify. What ever you’ve got is what you’ve got. There are a lot of tricks that teams play when it comes to Daytona and Talladega for qualifying that we can’t do anymore with the impound procedures. We change the hubs and spindles, greases and transmissions, the rear end and we change motor oil, just so many things that make such a difference at a plate race. So, it’s really going to be interesting to see who qualifies well and who doesn’t qualify well based on not being able to use all the tricks.”

What is the most noticeable difference in racing at Daytona at night versus the afternoon? “It makes the track a little more grippy and a little more forgiving because it is cooler. Visibility is really good at Daytona under the lights. It’s really not that big of a difference. It really just makes the day longer, you just have to wait all day long for the race to start and in all honesty, that’s the biggest difference.”

The Pepsi 400 starts the second half of the season. What are your thoughts on getting off on the right foot? “Well, the big misconception is that the Daytona race starts the second half of the season. That’s not true, there are a few more races to halfway. It’s race number 17 and there are 36 races, so it doesn’t add up. And now, with how we are racing with our new points system, it’s the first 26 races and then it’s the last ten, so those are really now our two different seasons and we are already past halfway of the first one. But, Daytona marks the beginning of returning to racetracks for the second time this year. We run this race, then we repeat at Pocono, at Michigan, to Charlotte, we start to revisit tracks and it begins at Daytona. Hopefully when you get to Daytona, you have built some momentum where you feel like you can go back to Daytona and run better, then go back to Pocono and run better, then onto Michigan and run better. I think it is more of a mental mind set about that then it is actually numerically being halfway through the season.”

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