Catchfence

Jeff Burton - Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

Race Notes and Quotes

This Week’s Caterpillar Chevrolet at Dover International Speedway … Jeff Burton will race chassis No. 359 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. Built new for 2011, this is the same Caterpillar Chevy Burton qualified fifth and drove to a 21^st-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May and qualified 22^nd and drove to a 19^th-place effort at Kentucky Speedway in July.

Monster Mile Report … In 35 Sprint Cup Series starts at Dover, Burton boasts one win (September 2006, where he snapped a 176-race winless streak), eight top-five and 15 top-10 finishes. The South Boston, Va., native has earned a 25.1 starting average to go along with a respectable 15.3 finishing average and has led nine different races for a total of 128 laps.

Last Time Around … Jeff Burton and the Cat Racing team overcame their 28^th-place starting position to score a runner-up finish in Round Two of the 2010 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup at Dover International Speedway

Right Mix at Dover … Since joining RCR in August 2004, Burton has run 14 racesat DIS,garnering an average finish position of 10.3 with four top-five, seven top-10 and 11 top-15 finishes. His first start for RCR at the high-banked, one-mile oval resulted in a 33^rd-place finish, but he has bounced back nicely and hasn’t finished outside the top 16 since. Burton has also scored two consecutive second-place finishes at the Monster Mile.

Loopy at the ‘Monster Mile’ … Burton is the sport’s best green-flag passer with 589 passes made. He is the fifth-best driver in quality passes (329), and the sixth-quickest driver late in a run, according to NASCAR’s Loop Data Statistics. The South Boston, Va., native ranks ninth in fastest laps run (170), in average running position and driver rating (90.4). Burton also ranks 10th in laps run in the top 15 with 3,512 laps. Meet the Driver … The RCR driver will participate in the NASCAR autograph session on Saturday, October 1 from 10:30-11:30 a.m. inside the track’s hospitality village, located outside turn one. Passes will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis to ticket holders for the AAA 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event on October 2, 2011 and a limited number of passes will be available for each driver. For additional information, please call 800-441-RACE or visit http://www.doverspeedway.com/track/press/article.php?dir=201108&id=3710.

Rearview Mirror: New Hampshire … Burton started the 300-lap affair from the 18th position in Sunday’s SYLVANIA 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and climbed his way to 12th by the halfway mark. With track position plaguing the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, Burton slipped to the 22nd position with under 100 laps remaining in the event, but made the right call on fuel strategy earning a 13th-place result.

JEFF BURTON QUOTES:

You were runner up last year at Dover International Speedway. Did you feel like you had a chance to win there?

“No, we weren’t quite good enough to win, but we were fast. Dover has been a really good track for us. We’ve run really well there. It’s a track that I really look forward to going to. It’s been one of our best race tracks statistic-wise, but, I don’t look back at that race and think ‘we had a really, really fast car.’ We were good, but we weren’t great.”

You’ve won at Dover International Speedway before. What kind of day does it have to be for you to be able to beat that track?

“You have got to have a car that you can get into rhythm with. You and the car have got to be together. That’s the only way I can describe it. You can’t muscle a car around Dover. The car has to be able to help you. You have to drive aggressively but to do that, you and the car have to be synced up. When you are, it’s magic. It’s great. When you’re not, you’re not going to win. There’s a real rhythm to that track. It’s very fast. You have got to have a car that will allow you to get into a rhythm and be consistent with it. If you don’t have that, you’re not going to win at Dover.”

What is it like when you’re in rhythm with your car and it does what you want it to do?

“There’s never a perfect-handling car. A perfect-handling car you could run around the track and never lift off the gas. Of course, you can’t do that. You have to make sacrifices to get around that. The easier it is and the fewer sacrifices you have to make, the easier it is to drive a car. That’s when you can become really in synced with your car. When you drive it into a corner and it does something different on the eighth lap and changes again on the 20^th lap, it’s hard to ever get in a rhythm.”

What makes the “Monster Mile” so tough?

“You can’t be loose. If you’re loose there, you can’t go fast. However, if you’re not a little loose, you push so bad that you can’t stand it. It’s hard to do both. A lot of patience is required. It’s aggressive patience. You have to drive the car exceptionally hard there, but if you go a little too hard, you’re hurting yourself. You have to have a good balance between having the car tight enough but not too tight.”

- Richard Childress Racing, Press Release