Jeff Burton focused on winning, not future with RCR

Having not won a race in more than four years and being repeatedly asked about their job security would put most NASCAR drivers on edge. Not so with Jeff Burton, who has the perspective of having been down this road before.

From 2002 to 2005, Burton failed to win a single Sprint Cup Series race after having won 17 times the previous five seasons combined. It was that dry spell which ultimately cost him his ride with Roush Fenway Racing, who let Burton go in favor of Carl Edwards.

However, Burton persevered and latched on with his current team, Richard Childress Racing, and found his way back to Victory Lane in 2006 after a string of 175 races without a win.

Since then, Burton has gone on to win on three other occasions, though none since 2008 when he took the checkered flag at the fall Charlotte event. And that drought has some questioning whether Burton, 45, is past his prime and whether RCR should re-sign him when his contract expires at the end of the season.

Burton, however, isn’t worried about the speculation concerning whether he’ll lose his ride as he understands that NASCAR is a performance-based sport and if you don’t produce your team will find someone who will.

“I don’t want to be in the conversation about is he going to have a ride or whatever,” Burton said Friday during a test session at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “I don’t want to be in there because honestly, and the reason I don’t want to be there is because that means things aren’t going well. ... I drive for my boss. And he has bosses. He has sponsors that require and demand, as they should, success. And so, I’m tough enough to handle the pressure.”

What Burton doesn’t want to happen is for people to think he is riding around every week just to collect a paycheck. Staring at an uncertain future, what he wants is for it to be known that even though he hasn’t won a race in 149 starts, the fire to compete and win still burns as intense as ever.

“I want to be successful,” Burton said. “I want to race Jimmie Johnson for the championship. I want to have the pressure going to Homestead that if you don’t get it done, Burton, you’re going to finish second. I want that pressure. That’s why I do it. The other pressure sucks. It’s not fun. So that’s the reason why. I just really don’t want to be in those conversations because it’s just no damn fun.”

Yet Burton’s struggles haven’t just been limited to his No. 31 team, as RCR as a whole has seen a dip in performance the last couple of years. The team went from placing three cars in the Chase in 2010 to just one a year ago, with Kevin Harvick’s late-season win at Phoenix being the organizations’ lone victory of 2012.

What Burton feels will help him and his team get back in contention this season is the introduction of the new Gen 6 car. With RCR having fallen off the pace and forced to play catch-up to the rest of NASCAR’s top teams, it would have been difficult for the three-car team to close the gap.

But the changeover to the manufacturer-based car has leveled the playing field in Burton’s eyes and should allow RCR to be far more competitive than it would have been otherwise.

“I think it is easier to start over than it is taking an existing vehicle and starting over,” Burton said. “It gives us a chance to stop and say ‘OK what is the best way to develop a car?’ and through that build a program that works for that. I think the timing of that is good for RCR in general.

“Whether that will yield results or not we will see. I think the timing of it is good for us.”