Four Teams Control Top 10 Spots In NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Apr 18, 2008
Four teams control the top 10 spots in the Sprint Cup Series, which has the weekend off.
Veteran Jeff Burton of Richard Childress Racing leads the Cup Series standings. He’s one of only two drivers with six top-10 finishes in the season’s eight races.
His teammates, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer, sit fifth and eighth, respectively. With less than a quarter of the season complete they’re enthusiastic, almost happy, but not at all satisfied with their performance.
“We’re not striving for good. We’re striving for great,” Burton told ESPN.com earlier this week. “I’m not trying to be a brat about it or anything. Everybody on our team feels the same way. We’re proud of what we’ve done. We also know it’s not enough.”
Burton, an outspoken but not loud driver, a voice of reason and a voice for the sport, knows about the ups and downs of a racing career. He was win-less from 2002 to 2005, spending part of that time driving a car without sponsorship for Roush Fenway Racing.
Even as he has emerged from his struggles while driving for RCR, which he joined in 2004, his onetime primary sponsor, AT&T (which became Cingular) was embroiled in a messy legal battle with NASCAR
about its right to get a spot on the car.
He’s not afraid to work for success and, as a result, has the respect of most other drivers in the pits and many fans in the stands.
“I don’t believe there is anybody out there that wants it worse than I do,” said the often laid-back father of two. “The reality is I try to be productive. Yelling and screaming, that isn’t going to do anything.”
While it’s hard for some to perceive NASCAR as a team sport, Burton’s influence might be the ultimate example of teamwork, or at least team-related influence.
With Burton at RCR, Harvick has seemingly matured, toning down his once-abundant emotional outbursts, while Bowyer has completed his transition from motorcycle racing to stock-car standout.
