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Burton Enjoying Resurgence At Childress
AP Photo
Jeff Burton practices for tonight's race at Darlington Raceway.
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Published: May 10, 2008
With 14 races left in the 2004 NASCAR season, a fading driver joined a once-dominant team seemingly in decline.
Jeff Burton hadn't won in almost three years, and Roush Racing was having trouble finding him a sponsor. Richard Childress Racing, which had ruled racing with Dale Earnhardt Sr., was struggling to put a driver in the top 10.
Nearly four years later, Burton, 40, has fully revived his career, and RCR, with three drivers in the top three of the Sprint Cup standings for tonight's Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington, has reclaimed a place among the best teams.
The parallel resurgence has been talked about for at least a couple of years, and with RCR outpacing powerful Hendrick Motorsports so far in 2008, it's topical again.
"I never had the success RCR had of winning all the championships, but I was used to being successful, and we both went through a time where we weren't very successful," Burton reflected this week. "We went through a time where a lot of drivers looked at Richard Childress Racing and said they didn't want to go there, and I know owners looked at me and said, 'Hey, he hasn't been able to get it done lately.'
"And I think we found each other at the right time. He was pretty disgusted with the way they had been running. He believed they had good people, he believed he had made the investment. He was really up front with me; he told me it wasn't working the way it should, and he had expectations I could help."
Burton, one of the most insightful and articulate drivers in racing, is working on making the Chase for the third consecutive year with RCR. He's second in the standings with a victory in March at Bristol - two and three spots ahead of teammates Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick.
He didn't click with RCR immediately. In his first full season with the team (2005), he finished 18th in the points with six top-10 finishes, while Carl Edwards, who replaced him in Roush's No. 99 Ford, won four races and finished third in the standings. RCR failed to make the Chase with any of its drivers for the second consecutive year.
The following year, though, Burton rang up 20 top-10s, joined Harvick in the Chase and returned to Victory Lane at Dover. And last year, RCR made the Chase with all three of its drivers - with Bowyer, the least likely among them, finishing third.
"I've received a lot of credit for where RCR is today," Burton said. "Some of that credit I'd like to think I deserve. But most of it - by far, most of it - is just everybody at the same time saying, 'Hey, we've got to do better.'"
One of Burton's primary contributions was to speak up. When he arrived at RCR, he saw an organization that was set in the ways that helped produce six championships with Earnhardt that it had fallen behind in technology.
Burton helped Childress understand that changes were needed, and Childress, starting in 2005, restructured practically his whole organization. He made a major commitment to technology and, last year, merged his engine shop with the engine shop at Dale Earnhardt Inc.
RCR's two victories this year - Burton at Bristol and Bowyer last week at Richmond - were the product of being in the right place when faster drivers had problems. The Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart have been faster everywhere, and Roush's Edwards has been faster on the intermediate tracks.
Combined, the three RCR drivers have led 245 laps through 10 races. Hamlin led 381 at Richmond alone.
But Burton, who has been in the top 12 in points for 71 consecutive weeks, is the only driver who has completed all 3,297 laps this year. And Harvick has gone 54 consecutive races without a DNF (did not finish).
"Obviously, we are not where we need to be performance-wise, but we are not in the trunk either," Harvick said. "We feel like we've taken that step from where we were four years ago from the back part of the pack to the front part of the pack. Now we're trying to take it the next level."
The next level for Burton would be a championship - something that has eluded him in a 15-year career in which his best finish was third in 2000.
"I think we've taken a step this year," Burton said. "I know it doesn't show in laps led, but there are a lot of areas that we won't talk about publicly. There are a lot of areas that we as a team feel that we're way stronger in.
"I know we're a better team and I think we'll shine as the year goes on."
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