Jeff Burton

Jeff Burton

status	active
NASCAR Cup Series statistics
Best placement	3rd - (2000)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 662 21st 6th 254
NASCAR Xfinity Series Statistics
Best placement	9th - (1992)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 306 27 11 153
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series statistics
Best placement	42nd - (1996)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 4th - - 3
Data status: June 29, 2014

Jeffery Brian Burton , better known as Jeff Burton (born June 29, 1967 in South Boston , Virginia ) is a former American NASCAR racing driver in the Sprint Cup . He drives the number 31 Chevrolet sponsored by Caterpillar for Richard Childress Racing . He also drives the number 29 Chevrolet, which is sponsored by Holiday Inn , in the Nationwide Series. Jeff Burton is the younger brother of Ward Burton , who was also a NASCAR racing driver and won the Daytona 500 in 2002. His nickname is The Mayor .

NASCAR career

Nationwide Series

Burton drove a handful of Nationwide Series races in the 1988 season in his father's number 69 car, John Burton. The following year, he competed for the full season with the number 12 Burton Autospors Pontiac and was a contender for the title of rookie of the year . In 1990 Burton drove the Armor Meats sponsored Buick with starting number 12 for Sam Ard. For the 1991 season he switched to the Armor / Food Lion -Chevrolet with starting number 99 for J&J Racing, before moving to Filmar Racing in 1992. That season his racing car was an Oldsmobile sponsored by TIC Financial System. In 1993, Burton was in a Ford sponsored by Baby Ruth .

Sprint Cup

1993-1995

Burton drove his first Winston Cup race in 1993 in a TIC Financial sponsored # 0 Ford for Fil Martocci. 1994 followed the first full season in the Winston Cup in the Raybestos Ford with the starting number 8 for the Stavola Brothers . In the same season, Ward began his career as a full-time driver, who, unlike Jeff, had not competed before the season. After five races Jeff was in 14th place in the championship, which should remain the best result of the season. At the end of the season, Burton was ranked 24th after being disqualified in the Miller Genuine Draft 400 for illegally drilling holes in the roll cage in breach of safety regulations. The best result in a race was fourth. With this season performance, Burton won the title of Rookie of the Year ahead of his brother. In the 1995 season, Jeff Burton achieved only a top 5 result and a ninth place. In addition, with three exuberant races, he fell back to 32nd place in the championship, while his brother won his first race.

1996-2001

In 1996 Burton left the Stavola Brothers and switched to Roush Racing . There he drove the Ford with starting number 99 and finished the season 13th in the championship, although he could not qualify for the Purolator 500 in March. In the following four years between 1997 and 2000, Burton finished no season worse than fifth in the championship.

At the Interstate Batteries 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in 1997, Burton secured his first win in the Winston Cup. Up to the 2000 season, 14 more followed. In 1999, Burton won six races, which is a career record. Among these six victories was the Jiffy Lube 300 , which he was able to win for the third time in a row, as well as two of the four most important races in the Winston Cup with the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500 . Burton's best season came in 2000 when he finished third in the championship with 294 points behind champion Bobby Labonte . In addition, he led on September 17 at the Dura Lube 300 on the New Hampshire International Speedway as the first driver to Cale Yarborough at the Nashville 420 in Nashville in June 1978 a race from start to finish. In the 2001 season, Burton won two more races and finished the season in tenth in the championship.

2002-2004

In both the 2002 and 2003 seasons, Burton finished twelfth in the championship and scored a total of eight top-5 and 25 top-10 results, but not a single win. After the sponsor Citgo announced to leave Roush Racing at the end of the 2003 season, Burton drove the 2004 season without a main sponsor, with individual races being supported by its own sponsor SKF. At the same time, rumors surfaced that he was leaving Roush Racing. After the rumors were initially denied, Burton signed a three-year contract with Richard Childress Racing in front of the Sirius at The Glen . Until the end of the season he then drove the America Online sponsored Chevrolet with the starting number 30. Before the change he was in 23rd place in the championship and after the change he improved his position at the end of the season to 18th after the end of the season During the season, Burton switched to the number 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet within Richard Childress Racing and replaced Robby Gordon .

2005

In 2005, Burton could not achieve a victory. In the end, he had six top 10 and three top 5 results, including a third place at the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at the Phoenix International Raceway . Burton had the best chance of winning the Sharpie 500 in August at Bristol Motor Speedway when he got stuck behind a competitor at a Green-White-Checkered finish and finished second behind winner Matt Kenseth .

2006

Burton after winning in Texas in 2007

In the 2006 season, Burton achieved a total of four pole positions at the Daytona 500 , the USG Sheetrock 400 , the Allstate 400 and the GFS Marketplace 400 . The pole position in Daytona was the first since September 2000 in Richmond. The best result in the race for Burton was a runner-up at Chicagoland Speedway . In the Allstate 400 and Sharpie 500, he led more than half of the race. After the race at Richmond International Raceway , Burton qualified for the Chase for the Nextel Cup , in which he was able to retract the 18th victory of his career after 175 races at the Dover 400 at Dover International Speedway on October 28, 2006 and thus the lead took over in the championship. Because of relatively poor results in the subsequent races, Burton gambled away his chances for the championship.

2007

Burton in the Boxes in Texas 2007

In the 2007 season, Burton won the 19th race of his career with the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 15th. Along with seven top five and twelve top 10 results, Burton qualified for the Chase for the Nextel Cup in the 2007 season.

Controversy over AT&T as the main sponsor

2007 color scheme for car no.31

Cingular Wireless began sponsoring the number 31 Chevrolet before the 2004 season, when Nextel secured the naming rights to NASCAR's top division. Both Cingular and Alltel , sponsor of Ryan Newman's # 12 Dodge, were allowed to continue sponsoring as they had previously sponsored the cup. In early 2007, Cingular began realigning its brand after being acquired by AT&T . Shortly thereafter, NASCAR referred to a special clause in the contract with Sprint Nextel that Cingular was not allowed to change the name or the advertised brand on the racing car.

After AT&T tried unsuccessfully to convince NASCAR to put their logo on the back of the car, AT&T filed a lawsuit against NASCAR on March 16, 2007. On May 18, AT&T was granted an injunction to redesign the car for the Nextel All-Star Challenge on May 19, after NASCAR failed with an urgent application on the same day. In retrospect, NASCAR was granted an August 2, 2007 appeal.

On June 17, 2007 NASCAR announced that it filed a lawsuit over 100 million US dollars have been filed against AT & T, and would have from 2008 all other telecommunications companies except Sprint Nextel from the sport.

On August 13, 2007, an appeal hearing paved the way for NASCAR to prohibit AT&T from displaying their logo on Jeff Burton's racing car. The court then referred the case back to the Atlanta District Court.

During the first training session for the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 24, 2007, the car with the starting number 31 had no AT&T trademarks and was only seen in the familiar orange and black. The team and Burton also had no branding on their clothing. Even the transport truck had no sponsor paintwork. According to NASCAR officials, the AT&T logo would not have made it through the inspection for the race.

On September 7, 2007, NASCAR announced that Sprint Nextel and Richard Childress Racing had reached an agreement that AT&T would sponsor Burton's cars until the end of the 2008 season. In turn, this also meant that Burton had to look for a new sponsor for the 2009 season.

Truck Series

Burton completed a total of four races in the Craftsman Truck Series , all in the 1996 season for Roush Racing . In the number 99 Ford, he achieved a top 5 and three top 10 results, the best result being fourth place at Nazareth Speedway .

Web links

Commons : Jeff Burton  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Official website
• Driver statistics on racing-reference.info
• Jeff Burton on NASCAR.com