JEFF BURTON QUOTES:
You’ve stated the 1.5-mile program is where Team Cingular and RCR as a whole has struggled this season. Is Kansas kind of a ‘litmus test’ for all of the things you think the team has improved recently?
“I think that Kansas, Texas and Charlotte are tracks that are really going to be important for us to run well at. We’re putting a lot of emphasis on improving that program to make that mile-and-a-half program better. We are looking at the body, the setup, how I drive the car and the engines, every single thing because that is our weak point. We definitely need to step that program up. So, yes, if we go to Kansas and run well, we’ll have something to hang our hats on. If we leave there and haven’t run well, then we’ll be more confused than before perhaps.”

You talked about changing the way you drive. What can you do as you look at this? Some drivers say ‘I am who I am. This is how I get on and off the gas. It’s our responsibility to get the car to work with me’.
“Well, they have a valid point, but there comes a time in every race when you have to do an analysis of ‘how am I doing, do I need to do something different’? When you’ve not had success at the mile-and-a-half tracks for a period of time, you start to think ‘well, maybe I need to try something different’. I think if you don’t do that, you’re close-minded. I think you have to be open- minded and you have to be willing at looking at doing something different when you haven’t had the success for an extended period of time. I will tell you, though, that changing my driving style won’t take us from running 15th to winning the race. It might take us from running 15th to 14th or 13th or 12th. You have got to be able to drive it in the corner deep and get in the gas as quickly as you can. If you can’t do those things then you won’t have success. I am the caliber of driver that doesn’t need to relearn how to drive, but maybe I need to tune the way I drive. I try to do that every week, but again, when you haven’t had success at a particular kind of track, you really need to look at that harder than you normally would.”

Do you learn things from other drivers by racing with them?
“Oh yeah, I watch and pay very close attention, so there are things you can learn. For example, we went to Homestead for the Goodyear tire test and spent two days down there … we must have run 500 laps. That test was really good for me because I realized I hadn’t been driving the new Homestead track the way I need to. That was good for me and helped me. I definitely learned some things. But, at the same token, I know I don’t need to change my driving style at Dover. There are some places that I know that what I do is fundamentally correct and what I was doing at Homestead wasn’t. You have to willing to look at yourself and at the same time the pressure has to be on making the car good. If the car drives well, I am the caliber of driver that can win the race. But, it’s part of my job to help make the car drive well. I am part of the puzzle. It’s not that there’s the car, then there’s me, we’re all together. Part of that has to come from me.”