Jeff Burton
No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet
Event Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: Pocono 500 – June 11, 2006
Venue: Pocono Raceway – Long Pond, Pa
NOTES:
This Week’s Race Car at Pocono Raceway … Jeff Burton will race chassis No. 173 from the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) stable. Built new for 2006, this is the same car Burton drove to a sixth-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Stat Facts … In 24 starts at Pocono, Burton has posted six top-five and 11 top-10 finishes.
Moving on up … With Burton’s fourth-place finish last weekend at Dover, the 17-time NASCAR Cup Series winner climbed into seventh place in the 2006 Cup Series championship point standings. After 13 of 36 points races, he now sits just 103 points out of fifth.
Meet the Driver … Burton will sign autographs Thursday, June 8 from 4-6 p.m. at the Cingular Wireless store located at 1020 Blakeslee Blvd, Lehighton, Pa.
Quick Pit Work … Team Cingular won the Checkers / Rally's Double Drive-Thru Challenge for their quick work on pit road last weekend at Dover. Burton’s over-the-wall crew consists of Josh Yost (jackman), Joe Zielinski (front-tire changer), Kevin Nervenga (front-tire carrier), Aaron Smith (rear-tire changer), Jason Fowler (rear-tire carrier), Larry Hartle (gasman), Rich Burgess (catch can) and Wes Adams (windshield) and pit crew coach Corrine Mauldin.
RCR at Pocono … RCR team owner Richard Childress has two wins at Pocono, both of them coming with Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt won the Summer 500, on July 19, 1987 and the Miller Genuine Draft 500 on July 18, 1993. Additionally, RCR has earned one pole, nine top-five and 33 top-10 finishes at the three-turn speedway. Childress, a former driver in NASCAR’s top division contributed two of those top 10s from 1976-1980.
Up to Speed … The Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway will be televised live, Sunday, June 11 beginning at 1:30 p.m. Easter Daylight Time (EDT) on FOX and be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 14th of 36 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series races is scheduled for Friday, June 9 at 3:40 p.m. EDT.
JEFF BURTON QUOTES:
What are your thoughts on Pocono?
“To be honest with you, we haven’t run that well at Pocono lately. I’m looking forward to going back this year. I think our cars are much better and our engines are much better. It’s a real demanding and long race. Pocono lasts forever. It feels like the longest race we run all season“
What makes Pocono so difficult for some teams?
“The fun thing about Pocono and the difficult thing is that everything is different. You have to be good in every corner; you can’t sacrifice anything anywhere. Pocono is a very demanding race track physically and very demanding race track mentally. It’s one of our toughest tests all year.”
The straightaways at Pocono are some of the longest on the circuit. Can drivers lose concentration?
“Oh, no, when you’re going down that straightaway you’re not going to fall asleep. You are focusing on that next corner. The straightaways are really long but those corners are very challenging so there’s not much sleeping at Pocono.”
