The Frontstretch: Jeff Burton May Finally Be Back by Kurt Smith -- Friday February 26, 2010

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Jeff Burton May Finally Be Back

Happy Hour · Kurt Smith · Friday February 26, 2010

 

If there is a Rodney Dangerfield of NASCAR, it may be Jeff Burton.

He doesn’t have the Cups that the glory brothers at Hendrick Motorsports have. He doesn’t have the name recognition of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. He doesn’t polarize the media like Tony Stewart. He won’t even be repeatedly pronounced the best driver to never win a championship, or be called the “sentimental favorite” as long as Mark Martin is alive, since Mark will probably race for another 10 years.

So maybe we can proclaim Jeff Burton to be “the best driver to perform under the radar for the longest amount of time”, or something like that.

In Burton’s long career he has put up 21 wins, but more importantly 222 top 10s—almost half of his starts, and that includes unsponsored years and his years with Stavola Brothers Racing. Fans groan about points racing, but a guy that can consistently put up good points finishes is going to do very well, even in this era of the Chase (part of Jimmie Johnson’s success has been few DNFs). This is a by-product of a driver who can take care of his stuff and be competitive on lap 200.

The pilot of the Caterpillar No. 31 may not have ever been down to the wire in a championship hunt, but he hasn’t been someone to write off either. Throughout his career, Burton has been among the best of the drivers on his respective teams, save for a difficult era with Roush Racing when sponsorship was tough and Jack seemed more determined to help his young guns excel.

From 1997-2000, Jeff Burton was putting up numbers that today would guarantee him a top ride and sponsorship even without posing for a swimsuit spread. He finished in the top 5 in the standings all four seasons, and this was before the Chase, when finishing in the top 5 meant a driver ran well every week all season. In 1998 and 1999, Burton finished more than half the races in the top 5, and only in 1997 did Burton score fewer than 22 top 10 finishes, with 18.

With top 10 finishes in half of his career Cup starts, Jeff Burton just may be ‘the best driver to perform under the radar for the longest amount of time’.

During this time period, only Mark Martin put up similar numbers in a Roush Ford, with 14 wins and three top 3 finishes in the standings. Guys like Kevin Lepage and Chad Little weren’t even close.

Burton’s less successful years after this remarkable run came at a time when Jack Roush was attempting to prop up his star young drivers, guys named Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle. Jack certainly isn’t to blame for that, since both have worked out pretty well. But something hurt the performance of the 99 team at this point, and it didn’t help that Jack had to juggle sponsorships for five cars. When Citgo left the No. 99, Roush didn’t (or couldn’t) transfer a sponsor from another team, and Burton was forced to drive a white 99 car for a year and a half before leaving Roush. I don’t know how much of a factor this played in the lesser finishes Burton scored at the time, but it had to have been demoralizing for the whole team.

People talked about the advantage Jack Roush had with multiple cars and NASCAR enforced a misguided rule against it starting this year, but it wasn’t always thus. When Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth were added to the Roush stable, Burton’s performance began to suffer, and with lack of sponsorship piled on top of it, his departure for Childress was certainly understandable.

Sponsorship, inexplicably, has frequently been a problem for one of the most likable, uncontroversial and successful drivers in the sport. Following Citgo’s departure and no replacement at Roush, there was the AT&T vs. Nextel mess, which when all was said and done led to departure of two sponsors that struggling teams could use right now. Fortunately the fine folks at Caterpillar already knew the benefits of sponsoring a Burton, and so the recognizable CAT logo now adorns the 31 car.

Burton moved up five places in the point standings from 23rd to 18th after leaving Roush for Richard Childress Racing in the middle of 2004. This was in a season where Jack Roush placed three drivers in the Chase, one of whom would become the Cup champion. Since then Childress has struggled and Burton has struggled with them, but he has somehow managed to make every Chase with RCR except for 2005 (when there were only ten drivers in it and seven of them drove for Roush and Roger Penske) and last season’s, when the entire RCR organization failed to make the playoffs.

Even in RCR’s lean years from 2007-2009, Burton has put his car near the top frequently enough—21 top 5s and 46 top 10s—to remind everyone that Richard Childress was down but not out.

It’s not quite a rule, but generally Roush Racing’s strength was at the intermediate tracks, while Childress seems to fare better at the short tracks. With both teams Burton has performed very well. Name the venue and Jeff Burton has gotten it done there, with wins at Bristol, Martinsville, Richmond Darlington, Daytona, Dover, and Loudon with or without restrictor plates. At nearly every venue where NASCAR currently holds events, JB has scored at least five top 5 finishes, with most of the exceptions being tracks the circuit only visits once a year.

Drivers that can put up consistent finishes like this are drivers that can not only win with a great car but can also find a way to run well with a car that is junk. If you can’t get someone that guarantees a sponsor for your ride, guys like Jeff Burton are the next best thing.

I’m not ready to declare RCR’s resurgence this season just yet. Roush Fenway looked world-beating after Fontana a year ago, and they ended up having a season that was well below their standard. We’ll see how well RCR runs when the weather warms up and the tracks get slicker. But thankfully, RCR does seem to have gotten back in the game for the moment, as my friend Danny Peters illustrated earlier this week. Three drivers in the top 8 at Fontana is quite a step up from 2009.

And if that’s the case all season, watch for that 31 car to be in the hunt in the 2010 Chase. Mark Martin’s not the only hungry veteran out there.

Kurt’s Shorts

  • Danica’s foray into NASCAR thus far reminds me of Fred Thompson’s 2008 presidential campaign. All the hype about whether he would or wouldn’t when everyone knew he would; and then he turned out to be not quite as skilled in the arena as advertised, even though I liked Fred. I’m not listening to the “she still needs to learn stock cars” argument. Sorry, that’s not something to learn in the second biggest racing series on earth. If she wants to race there with this kind of hype, she should produce results, and expect criticism when she doesn’t.
  • Speaking of the Nationwide Series, I sincerely hope the tire situation has improved since last year’s event, when the biggest stars in the series crashed on Cup tires and there were two red flags. No thanks.
  • I loved Kevin Harvick’s line after the Fontana race about the 48 team having a golden horseshoe in their rectum. Sometimes it sure seems that way. Then again, having seen some strange pit calls turn into gold for Johnson, I can envision Chad Knaus calculating exactly how long it would take before Keselowski spun out.
  • Is it me or is there a lack of energy in the Fox broadcast booth? Sometimes it seems like they’re overtrying to sell the sport this year. And I’m hearing lots of dead air spots, something I’m not used to with D.W. and Larry Mac in the booth. At least we’re seeing less of the gopher.

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MJR in Springfield Va
02/26/2010 09:08 AM
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When the starter says the words “Gentlemen, start your engines” it’s the likes of Jeff Burton and Mark Martin and Bill Elliot I think of. Certainly not the whiners and cry babies and complainer (I won’t mention name we all know who they are) that the sport is raising now a days. It will be a shame when the true “Gentlemen” of this sport hang up their helmets for the last time…wonder what the most famous words in all of racing will be then…”OK, with your permission, and without offense to your fragile egos, please begin the process of initiating the race process…….”

DansMom
02/26/2010 09:29 AM
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“Drivers start your engines” Because Danica will be in Cup.

DansMom
02/26/2010 09:42 AM
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“Kurt’s Sh*&ts”:

- Nationwide is NOT the 2nd biggest racing series on earth. Let’s name the bigger ones: Cup, NHRA, Indy, F1, Tour De France, Olympic Track and Field, you might even argue the Truck Series. I’d buy it!

- Lots of people watch racing for the wrecks. Don’t act like you hate them.

- Jimmie Johnson has a golden horseshoe called “talent and hardwork”. If Harvick is waiting for a golden horseshoe to equal the playing field – he needs to stand behind King Midas’s horse, piss it off, drop trow and bend over. Sad thing is – Jimmie would still have more talent in his rectum than Harvick has in his whole body.

- How come no one has pointed out hte correlation in the 6% drop in ratings and the drop in Digger. Maybe that thing wasn’t as bad as everyone tho… ok, even I couldn’t keep a straight face on that one. SORRY!

leedanielson
02/26/2010 03:13 PM
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I’ve been a Jeff Burton fan since the mid nineties and have a lot of his memorabilia. I’ve always resented the way Roush shoved him out the door. It’s nice to see that good guys can and do win. It would be great to see him contend for a cup title again. As far as the Danicawide series goes, I’ve pretty much decided to watch other programming when it’s on, unless there’s nothing else on of interest. Why watch watch a series completely dominated by cup drivers when I can watch the cup drivers the next day in their own series. I just wish this Danica mania would just go away. I like racing, not hype.

BoxerShortsOnFri
02/26/2010 03:22 PM
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I miss Digger already :(

Kevin in SoCal
02/26/2010 05:33 PM
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Citgo? Wasnt it Exide batteries that was the last sponsor of Jeff Burton’s #99 in 2003-2004?

Kurt Smith - Frontstretch Staff
02/26/2010 09:24 PM
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Kevin, Exide sponsored the 99 before Citgo, if my memory and Wikipedia are serving me correctly. I do know it was Citgo’s departure that left the 99 without a primary sponsor.

DansMom – you could maybe argue that Indy is bigger than the Nationwide Series, but the Tour De France?

Regardless, the point I’m making has nothing to do with the scope of the Nationwide series and everything to do with the argument that it is not the place to “learn how to drive stock cars”, which seems to be an excuse some are giving for Danica’s performance so far. It’s early, but thus far she has not shown that she is ready to be “one step away from the biggest series on earth”, if you prefer.

If you think I have a problem personally with Danica, I don’t. What I have a problem with is the idea that she isn’t under any obligation to get a good finish on the track like every other driver. The Nationwide Series is not the Danica Show.

And I’ve never, ever denied the talent and hard work of both Jimmie Johnson and the 48 team. I’ve written several columns on the subject in fact.

But thanks for reading.

DansMom
02/26/2010 10:09 PM
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The jimmie johnson comment was more of a bash on Kevin Harvick.

And maybe the tour de france is lame. But no one in america hated lance armstrong the way they hate jimmie johnson. Maybe he can market a bracelet that EVERYONE in america will buy.

Old Farmer
02/28/2010 03:02 AM
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DansMom’s comments prove once again that she hasn’t a clue—apparently about much of anything.

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