Burton says pressure to succeed is building with the summer heat

By SceneDaily Staff
Friday, June 27, 2008
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Robert Laberge
Getty Images for NASCAR

LOUDON, N.H. – Richard Childress Racing driver Jeff Burton says the dog days of the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule have begun. But the pressure is only going to intensify.
 
There are three more races before the series gets a week off, and then the schedule kicks into overdrive. After the break, the series has 17 races to close the season, including the run-up to the Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup, and the title-determining Chase itself.
 
As if finding success in Sprint Cup isn't hard enough, this time of year makes things more difficult.
 
“The hotter the temperatures get, the harder it is to make the cars handle, the harder it is to do what you need to do, and the pressure just builds and builds and builds,” Burton said. “This is the hardest time of the year, in my opinion.”
 
So in Burton’s mind, the next three races – this weekend at New Hampshire, and then Daytona and Chicago – are crucial to setting up the rest of the season.
 
“We have three more races to try to perform really well in, and then we get to kind of catch our breath,” Burton said. “We’ve tested a lot, we’ve asked a lot out of our team. We’ve done that I the hopes that when the summer does get here, we can take a little bit of time, recharge, reenergize because when that little recharge is over, it’s going to get big. We’re going to hit it really hard.”
 
Burton said drivers and teams obviously race for points from the drop of the green flag for the Daytona 500, but “the reality of your situation doesn’t set in until now.”
 
“You’ve got a lot of people saying, ‘Oh, my God, I’m 15th. I’ve got to find a way to 12th,’” Burton said. “You’ve got people in third saying, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got to find a way to stay here.’ It’s pressure for everybody.”
 
And for teams that have not won a race, that pressure increases. Burton won earlier this year at Bristol Motor Speedway, but a team like Jeff Gordon’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports group could be scratching its head.
 
“I don’t think it’s psychology as much as it is fact,” Burton said. “If you’re a team that hasn’t found a way to win, if you’re a team that hasn’t done the things you want to do, then you’re not having the success you need to have. That has an effect on you. How do you handle that? What do you do? What direction do you go in?
 
“It is a factor, there’s no question about it. We race to win, we race to finish the best we can when we can’t win. When you don’t feel like you’re doing that, then the pressure starts: ‘What are we going to do? How are we going to get better? What do we have to do?’”
 
The pressure builds and builds, Burton said, and sometimes fingers are pointed and infighting takes place.
 
That hasn’t happened with his No. 31 team. Quietly running well and posting solid finishes is nice, and Burton said he’s fine with that approach if it results in a title.
 
“If this process and the way that we’re doing it right now works out, then I’m extremely comfortable with it,” Burton said. “I don’t really care how we do it. It doesn’t matter to me if we do it by winning 10 races, or if we do it by winning two or winning none. The key is to win a championship.”

Mentioned Drivers: Jeff Burton

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2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings

Driver Standings after the AMP Energy 500

1 Jimmie Johnson 6248
2 Mark Martin -184
3 Jeff Gordon -192
4 Juan Pablo Montoya -239
5 Tony Stewart -279
6 Kurt Busch -312
7 Greg Biffle -340
8 Ryan Newman -402
9 Kasey Kahne -414
10 Carl Edwards -437
11 Denny Hamlin -448
12 Brian Vickers -556

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