Jeff Burton
| Jeff Burton | |
| Jeff Burton | |
|---|---|
| Birthdate: | June 29, 1967 |
| Birthplace: | South Boston, Virginia |
| Car Team: | 31 - Richard Childress Racing |
| Previous Year: | 2004 |
| Prev Cup Pos: | 18th |
| Best Cup Pos: | 3rd - 2000 (Winston Cup) |
| Wins: | 17 |
| Top Tens: | 154 |
| Poles: | 2 |
| Awards: | 1994 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year |
| First Race: | 1993 Slick 50 300 (New Hampshire) |
| First Win: | 1997 Interstate Batteries 500 (Texas) |
| Last Win: | 2001 Checker Auto Parts 500 presented by Pennzoil
(Phoenix) |
| Updated On: | September 18, 2005 |
Jeff Burton (born June 29, 1967) of South Boston, Virginia is an auto racer. He drives the #31 Cingular/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. He has participated in the Nextel Cup Series for 12 years, starting in 371 races.
1994 was Burton's rookie year in the Nextel Cup Series, although he had started in one race in 1993, finishing 37th. He drove the #99 Roundup FastAct Ford. After five races, he reached a season-high 14th place in the overall standings, but by the end of the year he slipped to 24th, his highest finish being 4th. The next year, in 1995, Burton had 1 top-5, along with a 9th place finish. He also missed three races and finished 32nd in points.
In 1996, Burton joined Roush Racing, and finished 13th overall, but from 1997 to 2000, he never finished lower than 5th in the points standings. He achieved his first career win in 1997, finishing first in the Interstate Batteries 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, and would go on to win 14 more races during the four-year run. In 1999, Burton won a career-high six races, including the Jiffy Lube 300 for a third straight year, which would lead to a fifth-place finish in points. His best points finish was in 2000, when he finished 3rd, 294 points behind champion Bobby Labonte. During that year, on September 17th, he led the Dura Lube 300 sponsored by Kmart at New Hampshire International Speedway wire-to-wire, becoming the first Cup driver to lead every lap in one race since Cale Yarborough did so at a 1978 race in Nashville. The following year, in 2001, Burton won another two races, upping his career total to 17, as he finished tenth in points.
In 2002 and 2003, he finished 12th and combined for 8 top-5s and 25 top-10s, but failed to win a race in either year. A rumor began to float around that Burton would be leaving Roush Racing. This finally happened in mid-2004 when, just before the Sirius at The Glen, Burton signed a three-year contract with Richard Childress Racing, leaving Roush after eight and a half years with the team. He would drive the #30 America Online Chevrolet for the rest of the season. Before the change, Burton had an average finish of 20.8 and was 23rd in points. In the 13 races after he changed teams, though, the same stats were improved to 16.6 and 18th. During the offseason, Burton and his team were switched to the #31 Cingular Wireless Chevy, replacing Robby Gordon.
Jeff Burton is the younger brother of Ward Burton, who was also a Nextel Cup driver until near the end of the 2004 season, when he was replaced by Mike Bliss in the #0 NetZero Best Buy Chevrolet.