Jeff Burton
No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet
Event Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: Sylvania 300 – September 17, 2006
Venue: New Hampshire International Speedway – Loudon, N.H.
NOTES:
This Week’s Race Car at New Hampshire International Speedway (NHIS) … Jeff Burton will pilot Chassis No. 178, a brand new Cingular Wireless Chevrolet from the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) stable.
Stat Facts … In 23 Cup starts at NHIS, Burton boasts four wins, seven top-five and 10 top-10 finishes.
Chase it … Team Cingular’s ninth-place finish last weekend at Richmond moved Burton into eighth in the NASCAR championship point standings. Entering Loudon, the 17-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner has accumulated four poles, four top-five and 15 top-10 finishes. At this point last season, Burton sat 21st in points and posted two top-five and three top-10 finishes.
Record Holder … Burton seems to know his way around NHIS. The South Boston, Va., native owns a few track records at NHIS, including most wins (four), most laps led by a race winner (300 – September 2000), least laps led by a race winner (two – July 1999) and track race record (Time 2:42:35, Speed 117.134 mph – July 1999)
From the Start … NHIS was the site of Burton’s first NASCAR Cup start on July 11, 1993.
Testing, One, Two, Three, Testing … Burton and Team Cingular tested their new car at the Milwaukee Mile on August 28-29, in preparation for the Sylvania 300, the first race in the Chase.
Media Darling … Burton will join his fellow Chase participants in NASCAR’s media blitz in New York City this week. The top-10 drivers will appear on The Late Show with David Letterman on Wednesday, then participate in an all day media tour on Thursday. The Cingular Wireless driver is scheduled to be a guest on FOX and Friends morning show, FOX News Dayside and a satellite media tour with the Phoenix media, among other appearances.
The Chase is On … Team Cingular driver Jeff Burton will be the first Chase driver guest on Speed’s The Chase Is On. The Speed TV special is highlighting each of the Top 10 NASCAR drivers in the “The Chase.” The program airs on Friday at 8:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and is hosted by Steve Byrnes with analysis by Carl Edwards.
Up to Speed … The Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway will be televised live Sunday, Sept. 17 beginning at 12:30 p.m. EDT on TNT and broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 27th of 36 NASCAR Cup Series events will take the green flag at 3 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 15 and will be telecast live on SPEED.
JEFF BURTON QUOTES:
Now that Team Cingular has reached its goal of making it into The Chase for the Championship, what do you need to do from here to win the championship?
“We need to step it up a bit. This is a really strong team and I am very proud of everyone and the job they have done to this point. From the way we have been running I think we need to improve a little bit. We’re close but we have to find a way to get just a touch better. Team Cingular is very prepared going into The Chase. We have a lot of new equipment sitting in our shop and think it’s better than what we have been running. With that, we think we can step it up just a little bit and we’ll be right there. There are a lot of good teams who didn’t make it into The Chase so that makes me appreciate even more the fact that we are in. Instead of going into The Chase and sputtering through it, I want to go in and be a force so that is what we are trying to do. You have to run well in The Chase in order to compete for the championship. You can’t 15th your way into the title. You can’t win the thing in the first few races but I believe you can lose it if you have a few bad runs right off the bat”
How do the tracks in The Chase play out for you and your driving style?
“I feel good about it. There are three races in the Chase that I feel really good about – New Hampshire, Phoenix and Martinsville. As everyone knows, Talladega will be a crap shoot. Team Cingular ran really well at Atlanta in the spring and we have stepped up our intermediate program a tremendous amount this season so I feel really good about The Chase tracks. The schedule has a good cross-section of tracks which makes up a good format to crown our champion.”
