Jeff Burton
Jeff Burton
Jeffrey T. "Jeff" Burton, nicknamed "The Mayor", is an American retired stock car racing driver. He scored 21 career victories in the Sprint Cup Series, including two Coca-Cola 600s in 1999 and 2001 and the 1999 Southern 500. He currently serves as a color analyst for NBC Sports, having joined them upon their return to their coverage of NASCAR. His brother Ward Burton and his nephew Jeb Burton have also competed in the Sprint Cup Series...
ProfessionRace Car Driver
Date of Birth29 June 1967
CitySouth Boston, VA
ask car felt five people race racing safer today
Racing is safer today than it was five years ago, but we didn't know it. People ask me, 'Do you feel safer today in a race car than you did five years ago?' No, I don't. I felt safe five years ago. I thought we were doing all we could do. I didn't know we could do more.
difficult good race racing rookies start
This is a difficult race track, for sure, but the rookies that we have are really good and they didn't just start racing yesterday.
huge last limited looking teams testing tests tire
You're looking at teams that are going to do tire tests. There were teams that went to do tire tests the last two days. We're not testing anywhere, and with the limited testing, that is a huge disadvantage.
focused hard proud question stayed trying
You question yourself. You question everything. But I'm proud of myself. I stayed focused through all of it. We're working really hard and trying really hard to get back to the top.
diverse fact needs
The fact is, our sport is not as diverse as it needs to be.
chance clean far good hit kevin last race teammate
I wasn't going to hit Kevin. I race clean every chance I get and the last person I'm going to hit is my teammate. Kevin has been real good to me as far as being a teammate and he would do the same for me.
honesty impact matter messing today turn
In all honesty, it's a matter of me not messing up. Today had nothing to do with me. The only impact I had on the day was to be a warm-blooded person who could turn the thing on and mash the gas.
knew running shot
I knew we had a shot a running well but I didn't know we could run that well.
crowd hoping pulling
I'm really hoping they're in it because I know the whole crowd will be pulling for them.
car concerned educated macho people popular race talk today willing
Before that, it was kind of a macho thing. It was like, 'Just get in the race car and drive.' I've never concerned myself with being very macho. I try to be smart, be educated and do the right thing. That has become more popular today than it used to be. People are willing to talk about (safety) now.
areas business certainly doubt feelings lost opportunity people races
Certainly through change, some people get their feelings hurt, there's no doubt about it. Unfortunately, some of the people in some of the areas have lost the opportunity to see as many races as they had. But what we do is big business and what we do relies on a lot of people being able to see it.
although bill community diminished feet given good impact minute open people power talk willing
He and Bill Jr. had a really good relationship. As Bill Jr. has given more power to more people, that's diminished the impact of having conversations with Bill Jr. a little bit, although don't think for a minute Bill Jr. isn't stomping his feet somewhere. I think it's much more of an open community today. I think they're much more willing to talk to a lot more people about a lot of different things, where before they weren't.
bill conversation diminished given good impact power
He and Bill Jr. had a good relationship. As Bill has given more power to more people, that has diminished the impact of having a conversation with Bill Jr.
almost believe benefit dropping gave groups hammer individual needed nice people
I believe that a lot of it had to do with Richard's being a nice guy. I think that he was really nice, almost was too nice, to a lot of - not individual people but to the groups. I think he gave a lot of groups the benefit of the doubt, that they were doing the right thing, and wasn't dropping the hammer when things weren't what they needed to be.