Burton still hoping for more from his RCR team
By SceneDaily Staff
Saturday, June 14, 2008
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Sam Cranston / NASCAR Scene
Richard Childress Racing's Jeff Burton (left) talks with NASCAR president Mike Helton on Friday at Michigan International Speedway.
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BROOKLYN, Mich. – Coming off three consecutive finishes of eighth or better, Jeff Burton recognizes that he is running well in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition. He also realizes that his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing team still has some work to do.
“I’ve said all year long that we’re a really good race team,” Burton said on Friday at Michigan International Speedway, site of Sunday’s Lifelock 400. “I think we’re really solid but we have some room to improve in. I believe that’s the case today.”
Burton has run near the front often in 2008, but he's rarely run at the front while Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch, Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards and Gillett Evernham Motorsports’ Kasey Kahne have all had dominant stretches.
Even in his lone victory, which came at Bristol Motor Speedway in March, Burton led only the final two laps.
“I think our best is yet to come,” he said. “We run well every week. We haven’t run great every week and by the way very few teams have. So we are a real solid race team that has some ground to make up in some areas.
“We do a lot of things better than some in some areas and we’re focusing hard on where we need to be better. I think we can be. I really believe that our best is ahead of us and I’m real comfortable with where we are.”
But Burton, who is second in the series standings, knows that getting too comfortable won’t help him in his bid to make the Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup.
“You just got to run well,” he said. “You just got to have good performance. If you have good performance than typically things will go your way. We’ve obviously had some fortune. We’ve had some things go our way this year. We’ve caught some breaks here and there without a doubt. The first thing you have to have is good race cars and good decisions being made, so far to this point we’ve done that.
“But for us to continue we got to continue to improve. The level of competition will get harder as the year goes on. People will get better, people will improve and we have to improve more than they do if we want to have a chance to number one make the Chase and number two contend for a championship.”
On Sunday, Burton hopes to contend for the win at Michigan, a venue where he has never gone to victory lane in 28 starts.
“It is a unique track,” he said. “We don’t have many tracks that are like this. It looks like California but it’s not. It’s not like Charlotte, it’s
not like Atlanta. This is a pretty unique race track. I think when you hit up on something here it probably lasts for a long time. I think that’s why you have seen a lot of drivers not win here.”
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Jeff Burton
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