Jeff Burton
No. 31 AT&T Chevrolet
Event Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: Chevy Rock & Roll 400 – September 8, 2007
Venue: Richmond (Va.) International Raceway
NOTES:
This Week’s Race Car Richmond International Raceway (RIR) … Jeff Burton will pilot chassis No. 196 from the Richard Childress Racing stable. Built new for 2007, Burton recently drove this car to a 12th-place finish at Dover International Speedway in June and to a seventh-place finish at New Hampshire International Speedway in July.
Stat Facts … In 26 Cup starts at RIR, Burton boasts one pole, one win, seven top-five and 12 top-10 finishes and has led 899 laps of competition.
Locked In … The 19-time Cup Series winner clinched a spot in this season’s Chase for the Cup with his fourth-place finish at California. Burton currently sits seventh in the point standings, 460 points behind leader Jeff Gordon. After the running of the Chevy Rock & Roll 400, the top 12 drivers will have their points adjusted to 5,000 each plus 10 additional points for each win they have captured during the 2007 season.
Last Time Around … Engine woes just 138 laps into the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway earlier this season left Jeff Burton and the AT&T Racing team with a 43rd-place finish. The South Boston, Va., native was posting lap times quicker than the leaders and was up to 15th from his 39th qualifying position before the engine expired on the No. 31 Chevrolet.
RCR at RIR … Richard Childress is tied for fourth with Robert Yates for car owner victories at Richmond with six wins – five with Dale Earnhardt and the most recent coming last fall with Kevin Harvick. Additionally, in 98 starts, RCR boasts 28 top-five and 45 top-10 finishes at the three-quarter mile Virginia oval with nine different drivers including Earnhardt, Ricky Rudd, Mike Skinner, Harvick, Robby Gordon, Jeff Green, Jeff Burton and Bowyer. Childress, a former driver on NASCAR’s senior circuit, contributed three of those top 10s from 1976-1978.
Carry Me Back to Old Virginia … Five members of the AT&T Racing team hail from the Old Dominion State. AT&T driver Jeff Burton was born and raised in South Boston. Gear specialist and fuel runner Curt Bowman calls Meadows of Dan his hometown. Transporter driver Franky Nester was born in Ridgeway and now resides in Stoneville. Other gear specialist Greg Meredeth was born and still resides in Fancy Gap and tire specialist Tracey Ramsey is from Waynesboro.
Question This … Burton will participate in a question and answer session hosted by Riki Rachtman on the Chevy stage at Richmond International Speedway Saturday, September 8 at 3:30 p.m.
Catch the Action … The Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at RIR will be televised live Saturday, September 8 beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on ABC and will broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 26th of 36 NASCAR Cup Series events will begin at 6:10 p.m. EDT Friday, September 7 and will be telecast live on ESPN2.
JEFF BURTON QUOTES:
Richmond is one of your favorite tracks. Why?
“I just think for the teams, for the fans and for everybody that it takes to make this sport work, it’s the best all-around track. Richmond has good racing action. It’s big enough where it’s not wreck after wreck, but small enough where it’s close side-by-side action since you have multiple grooves. To me, it’s a really hard race track to beat competition-wise.”
Talk about your run at Richmond earlier this year.
"I thought we ran really well there in the spring. We broke an engine and didn’t get a chance to finish it off. We qualified terrible but had a great car for the race. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back to Richmond so we can make up for what didn’t get to do in the spring.”
Now that you are locked in to the Chase, what is the team’s objective for Richmond?
“Our goal is to go out there and learn. We are going to experiment a little bit and try some things we don’t get a chance to try and see if we can get smarter. At same time, we are going to try and win the race. Bonus points for winning races are valuable and an extra 10 points could definitely help us.”
With five Car of Tomorrow races in the Chase, where do you think your team is with the production of the Impala SS and have you learned a lot about the new car from previous races?
"We’ve been working hard to get caught up and hopefully be ahead of the ball game. Quantity is not always important. What’s important is quality and we feel good about the number of cars we have and the cars that we built. We do think we can build some better ones and we’re trying to do that now. We’re still building new cars for the Chase and hopefully the ones we build will race well in the Chase races."
