Jeff Burton
No. 31 AT&T Chevrolet
Event Preview Fact Sheet

Event/Date: 3M Performance 400 - August 19, 2007
Venue: Michigan International Speedway - Brooklyn, Mich.

NOTES:

• This Week's AT&T Chevrolet at Michigan International Speedway . Jeff Burton will race chassis No. 178 from the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) stable. Built new for 2006, this is the same AT&T Chevrolet Burton drove to a seventh-place finish at New Hampshire International Speedway last season. Since then, the car has been outfitted with all the required 2007 updates including a new body.
• Burton in the Loop at Michigan …
  
  • Stat Facts … In 27 starts at Michigan, Burton has earned two poles, four top-five and eight top-10 finishes and has led 74 laps.
  • Good Start, Better Finish … Over the season’s first 22 races, Burton has earned six top-five and 11 top-10 finishes. He currently holds a 17.73 starting average coupled with a 13.64 finishing average and has completed 5,709 of 6,046 total laps (94.4%) to date.
  • Since We’re Talking Stats … Burton is ranked ninth in NASCAR’s Average Running Position category (13.85) and is currently the sport’s third-best Quality Passer (1,189) – a statistic derived from the number of positions improved while running in the top-15 during green-flag conditions. He is 10th in the Driver Rating category (91.3). The Driver Rating is a formula that combines the following categories: wins, top-15 finishes, average running position while on the lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, most laps led and lead-lap finishes. The maximum points a driver can earn in each race is 150 points. The Driver Rating number is used pre-race as a prediction tool and post-race as a performance evaluator.
• Four to Go … The 19-time series winner currently sits sixth in the championship point standings with four races remaining in NASCAR’s “Race to the Chase.” The 12 Chase contenders will be determined once the checkered flag waves at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday, September 8. Over the same four races last season, Burton had an average starting position of 3.0 coupled with an average finishing position of 19.0.
• RCR at Michigan … RCR team owner Richard Childress has earned two wins at Michigan International Speedway, both of them coming with Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt snagged the checkered flag in the Miller American 400 on June 28, 1987 and again in the Miller Genuine Draft 400 on June 24, 1990. Additionally, RCR boasts 15 top-five and 33 top-10 finishes with seven different drivers including Childress, a former driver in NASCAR’s top division, who recorded top 10s at Michigan in June 1978 and in August 1979.
• Double Down in Brooklyn Town … Burton, a 24-time winner in the NASCAR Busch Series, returns to the seat of the No. 29 Holiday Inn Chevrolet for this weekend’s CARFAX 250 at MIS Saturday, August 18. The race will be televised live on ESPN2 beginning at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius Satellite Radio.
• Up Close and Personal … The No. 31 team will be one of five teams featured this weekend on DIRECTV’S NASCAR HOTPASS. With a channel dedicated solely to the AT&T Racing team during the running of the 3M Performance 400, fans will be able to watch all the action through Direct TV’s multiple camera angles, real-time car telemetry and listen to in-car audio communication.
• Going Home … One member from the AT&T Racing over-the-wall pit crew hails from the state of Michigan. Jackman Bill Ferguson grew up in White Lake, Mich. In addition to his race day duty on the No. 31 AT&T Chevrolet, Ferguson works in RCR’s engineering department as a Project Engineer. His shop duties include measuring chassis, or suspension components, design products utilizing CAD software and running projects on a rapid prototyping machine. Ferguson is also the jackman for RCR’s No. 21 AutoZone Busch Series team.
• Up to Speed … The 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway will be televised live Sunday, August 19, beginning at 2 p.m. EDT on ESPN and be broadcast live on MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 23rd stop on the 36-race NASCAR Cup Series tour will air live on ESPN2 Friday, August 17 beginning at 3 p.m. EDT and will also be broadcast on MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio.

JEFF BURTON QUOTES:
As far as points are concerned, do you feel like you are in a good position to make this year's Chase?
"Obviously, points are important. The first 26 races are about position and the last 10 are about racing for points, as you always do, but you are also trying to become better. We haven't run as well in the past two months as we would have liked to run. We haven't been terrible but we haven't been great either. We feel good about where we are now but there is a lot of racing left to go. We have to continue to be smart and try to improve. That's what we are focusing on."

Michigan has been a tough track for you the past couple of years. Why is that?
"I don't know. We've struggled being loose there and not turning as well as we needed to. We just never got the right balance. We have some opinions and theories that we have built over the past couple of years based on those things and, hopefully, we'll take a different package this coming week that can help us run there. We know what our problems have been. The key is knowing how to fix those problems."

Do you enjoy the competitiveness at Michigan?
"Michigan is a slick race track. You think of Michigan as being a two-mile high-banked real fast race track but, in fact, it's a low-grip race track. I think the competition at Michigan is a lot better than it was 10 years ago and you have a lot more teams that have a chance of being competitive. There are more quality teams throughout the garage area, not just drivers."