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HI99 NASCAR News
2/25/2010
The talk about the fate of Jeff Burton’s career began to seep into
racing conversations early last season and it picked up serious steam
during the summer. It was the kind of talk that affixes itself to all
athletes whose fortunes waver around that arbitrary point where they
start being labeled as “aging.”
And in the fall, after Burton
had missed the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup for the first time since
2005, his first full season with Richard Childress Racing, even
Burton’s most loyal fans had to be wondering.
It’s just the way it goes.
Today,
as the Sprint Cup teams prepare for Sunday’s Shelby American in Las
Vegas, even Burton’s most loyal fans have to be feeling a bit foolish
because in conversations about his fate, he’s being labeled a
“championship contender.”
The 2010 season is just two races
old, but Burton is 2-for-2 in the impressive-starts column, looking
fast enough to win at Daytona and again last weekend at Auto Club
Speedway in Southern California.
Burton sits fifth in points
this week, and adding to the titillation factor is the fact he is
heading to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he has been a consistent
top-10 finisher.
Burton, who will turn 43 in June, took a deep
breath this week when asked about his early-season mood and then said,
“I’m a lot more confident today than I was last year.”
Ah, yes, last year.
Heading
into Las Vegas in 2009, Burton had settled into a Russian winter. He
finished 28th at Daytona and then 32nd at Auto Club. He was 31st in
points and dang wary when he stepped off the airplane in Vegas.
“I
was concerned going into last year because I knew we had worked hard,
but we didn’t finish the previous year off strong,” Burton said this
week. “We did a tire test in January (2009), and we were pretty far off
on speed. I was really sick and not feeling good and I kept saying that
I am still fast when I’m sick, so it’s not that. Then, it showed itself
pretty quickly that we weren’t very good.”
Thus started the season of aging-laced conversations by onlookers and of concerned frowns by Burton.
“It’s a lot of pressure for those who got off to a bad start,” he said.
This
winter? Well, it’s off to a warm start because, as Russian playwright
Anton Chekhov said, “People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer
when they’re happy.”
The No. 31 RCR team seemed to embark on
happier times at the end of the 2009 season. The team’s engines
appeared be cranking out more power during the final 10 or so races
last year, and improvement continued in the offseason.
When the team arrived in Daytona for Speedweeks, it just seemed to be lot more prepared, Burton said.
“We
felt good about what happened in the fall, over the winter,” Burton
said. “Until you start racing, you don’t know where you are honestly.
You feel good about it. I had quite a bit of confidence coming in.
“But
until everybody gets out here and they’re going to give somebody a
trophy, you don’t really know where you stand. I expected to run well.”
Burton should expect to run well again this weekend. Las Vegas is a Burton track.
His
average finish in Cup races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is 9.8. That is
his best average finish of the 24 tracks he has competed on since his
first Cup race in 1993. Burton has two wins among his eight top-10s in
12 starts at Las Vegas.
Both victories came when Burton was
in a Roush Fenway Ford and before the track was rebanked, but he also
has done well in an RCR Chevy on the new configuration. Last year, for
example, one of his best runs came at Vegas when he finished third and
led a season-high 61 laps.
“Las Vegas is a track I’m
comfortable racing on,” Burton said. “I think we have learned a lot
from previous races that has helped us have good starting points every
time we unload there. So, based on the data we gathered from last
year’s event and offseason preparation, I know we’ll have a competitive
Caterpillar Chevrolet.”
And if he does, his casual winter mood will continue on for at least one more week.
“I’ve
had good starts, and I’ve not had good starts,” Burton said. “When you
have a good start, it enables you to just relax a little bit.”
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