Jeff Burton
No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet
Event Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 – March 12, 2006
Venue: Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Las Vegas, Nev.
NOTES:
This Week’s Race Car at Las Vegas Motor Speedway … Jeff Burton will race chassis No. 164 from the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) stable, which recently finished fifth at California Speedway. It is a new Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS for the 2006 season.
Testing, testing … Burton and Team Cingular tested Las Vegas Motor Speedway Jan. 30-31 in preparation for the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 as part of NASCAR’s Preseason test session.
Back-to-Back … Burton won the 1999 and 2000 Cup races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In eight NASCAR Cup starts at the speedway, he has claimed three top-five and five top-10 finishes. In addition, the South Boston, Va., native has posted one pole, two wins, four top-five and five top-10 finishes in six Busch Series starts at the track.
Meet the Driver … Burton will be signing autographs Friday, March 10 from 5-7 p.m. at the Cingular Wireless store located at 2015 W. Craig Road, North Las Vegas
Camera Man … Prior to hitting the track for the race weekend, Burton will be honing his acting skills as he participates in a few commercials shoots. As a member of the Coca-Cola racing family, Burton will be involved in a commercial shoot in Moorseville, NC on Monday. Then later in the week in the Las Vegas area, the 17-time race winner is shooting a commercial for his primary sponsor Cingular Wireless.
Host with the most … Following the race weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Jeff Burton will return to the set of Inside Nextel Cup Monday, March 13 to join Dave Despain, Kenny Schrader and Michael Waltrip as a co-host of the popular SPEED program. The driver of the Cingular Chevrolet will be making reoccurring appearances on the show as the fill-in co-host.
Up to Speed … The UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 can be seen live on FOX Sunday, March 12 at 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) and can be heard live on MRN and XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying is set for Friday, March 10 at 6:30 p.m. EST and will be broadcast live on SPEED, PRN and XM Satellite Radio.
JEFF BURTON QUOTES:
As a two-time winner at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, do you approach this track differently than other tracks since you’ve won there?
“Well, we didn’t win there the last race, so we’re kind of in the position of returning back to Victory Lane. Las Vegas is a track where I’ve always run well and it should be the type of track where this team will run best. We are taking the same car we used at the test at Vegas, which also just finished fifth at California Speedway. The car is really good, it has a lot of speed and we were able to make the correct adjustments on it at the right time at California. It ran really well at the Vegas test and followed suit in California, so we’re looking to improve on that even further for the race. Vegas is all about corner speed, about being able to carry speed through the center of the corner. If you can do that, you can run good at Vegas.”
As part of an overall construction project at Las Vegas Motor Speedway the banking will be changed at Las Vegas Motor Speedway from 12 degrees to 20 degrees. What do you think of that decision?
“That’s a shame. I am so frustrated at the company for making that change. Vegas is one of the best race tracks on the circuit, puts on great races and doesn’t need to be changed. And the fact of the matter is their more likely to screw it up more than they are going to help it. That’s just how it is. It’s a good race track the way it is. You are going to see more side-by-side racing this race than you ever have there. Some race tracks we need to change, but Las Vegas Motor Speedway isn’t one of them. It’s not just because I’ve won there, if you go through the garage and ask most people, they’ll say Vegas is a good race track. They are wasting money messing with the track’s banking. I appreciate and applaud them for making the facilities better and doing things for the fans, but right now, they are not going to be doing the right thing for that race track itself.”
