Q You’re an experienced Chase contender. Have you learned over time anything about the Chase that is exceptional and not like racing as usual?
JEFF BURTON: I think the really interesting thing about the Chase is when the Chase starts everyone tries to define how the Chase is going to happen. The reality is no one knows how it’s going to happen. And it’s a lot – the old adage of keeping yourself in position to win a football or baseball game, whatever, I think that really holds true in this Chase format. I mean right now today if you look at what it’s taken to win, what it will take to win the Chase, look at what Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have done, not only have they not had problems they’ve had great finishes.
The question is if they have any problems at all in the next three races we’ve got a whole ’nother ball game. So the number of bad finishes that you’re able to have, the number of top 5s, wins you have to have to win it, everybody thinks they understand it. But the reality is no one really knows. Because every Chase is different. The only thing I know for sure is that the better you do, the more chances you put yourself into position to get top 5s, top 7s the better chance you have to win it.
And today’s Chase today you’ve not been afforded bad finishes. You just can’t have them. So the interesting thing to me and the thing I’ve learned the most is that you can’t go into it thinking you know how it’s going to pan out.
And you have to race every race by itself. You can’t be racing Dover worried about Michigan, or not Michigan, but worried about Kansas. You just gotta take each race, get the best you can, get the most you can, and that’s really all you can do.
Q I know last year you were a big proponent when it was announced that Juan Pablo was going to be coming into the series. Your thoughts about the new three drivers, Villeneuve, Carpentier and Franchitti. And if this trend continues, is there a point that we have to start wondering about how many more drivers from other series are going to be coming into this series?
JEFF BURTON: You don’t have to worry about that. It’s a monkey see, monkey do sport. Somebody will hire somebody else and do well and then everybody will have to have them. So there’s not a whole lot of creativity in our sport, in my opinion.
I think that Chip was very creative and the rest of them are just copycats. I mean that’s my opinion. So that will happen again. I think that our sport should be open to any driver no matter what country he’s from, he or she, what color he or she may be. It should not matter.
And what should matter is the driving ability of that person and his or her’s ability to interact with fans and interact with sponsors and do a good job of representing their team and their sport. That should be the criteria and that should be the only criteria.
I believe that the biggest adjustment that those guys have, and I think you’ve seen it with Montoya, is that these cars are just so different. And I think it just takes a while. I think Montoya has done an incredibly good job, and I think the other guys will too.
I view it as a flattering commentary on our sport that other forms of drivers want to come to our sport. And these are drivers that have opportunities to do things in the type of racing they were in but they elect to come do this.
That’s very flattering for our type of auto racing. So I think – the controversial thing of it is that at what point do we not have enough American drivers to attract the American fan. And that’s a conversation that should be had. I don’t know how you would limit it.
And you shouldn’t limit it. But it does have potential, some potential negative consequences, as I think we’ve seen in other forms of motor sports. We are American fans for the most part like to pull for American drivers. That’s just how it is.
When I watch the Ryder Cup I want America to win. That’s just part of human nature. So that’s potentially an issue that we may have to deal with. But, again, it should be open to the most talented people that can do the best job overall and whatever that works out, that’s how it works out.
Q Following up on that, does the sport need a Ward Burton-type personality in the top 10 now, do you think that might help the TV ratings and empty seats in the stands, somebody that working people might identify with more?
JEFF BURTON: I don’t know. I don’t have an answer for that. I think that I get a little mad when we talk about personalities and all that. I mean if you look at who is in the Chase and the different personalities that are in the Chase, what personality isn’t in there?
We’ve got a huge array of different personalities, and I think that the Chase is very well represented in different walks of life, different background. That’s my opinion.
Q To beat this dead horse just a little bit more, you mentioned the Ryder Cup earlier, and there’s a very definitive qualifying system for that as there is for getting on the PGA Tour, you shoot the numbers and you’re out there. A little more vague in this league. How much do you think that the personality of the driver and how many fans they attract and that sort of thing plays into it as opposed to their ability to drive a car?
JEFF BURTON: I think there’s a lot of people that have the ability to drive race cars and I think there’s a lot of people running short tracks or running road courses somewhere in America or Europe or wherever that have every bit as much talent as the very best guy here but they don’t get a shot for one reason or another their dad doesn’t have money or uncle doesn’t have money or they can’t get a sponsor. This sport’s a very unique sport in that you have to have access to dollars. You have to have access to resources.
If you don’t have that, in many cases you can be the best driver in the world and never get a shot. So in many ways it’s not exactly a fair sport. I don’t think that NASCAR should be in the position to make decisions should the driver come in or not because of his personality. That’s a sponsor’s decision. That’s a car owner and a sponsor decision. That’s who’s making the investment in the driver.
So I think that takes care of itself. Again, I think that – and we had the big discussion at Talladega, was that the proper place for a rookie to have his very first race. The question wasn’t the ability level, the question was, was that the right place? And most drivers say almost anywhere but here. As the race turned out, it could have been the hardest race of the year turned out it was maybe the easiest race of the year.
So I think the drivers, if you’ve had success in another series, top series, you have the talent to do this. And it’s just getting adapted to this form of racing. That’s going to be – that’s the issue. It’s not the talent level. It’s not the ability. It’s just having the time and people around you having the patience to allow you to be able to do as well as you will be able to do.
Q I was wondering if you could go back for a second to Sunday on the last restart. Could you see what was going on with the 11 when that all piled up?
JEFF BURTON: Obviously not (laughing) you know the interesting thing about our sport and restarts is you can’t see two cars in front of you. You have no idea what’s going on. They stop and you got momentum, you’re going to hit something.
That’s what I got committed to trying to make a move on the outside and I was coming, man, I thought I had a run. All of a sudden they were in front of me not moving. So it’s very difficult to see around cars and through cars. And two cars in front of you something can be happening and you don’t know it until you hit something.
Q You and Scott Wimmer have put RCR in a position to win a Busch Owners Championship this year. The word over the weekend, the version of the COT will come to the nationwide series in 2009, how do you view the future of the series?
JEFF BURTON: Expensive. The transition from the current car to the Car of Tomorrow is exceptionally expensive. NASCAR, I think, did about as good of a job as they could not to just throw it on the Cup teams. I haven’t heard the plan for the Busch teams. Next year there’s a new engine RPM rule. There’s a new manifold rule, which is going to pull quite a bit of horsepower out of them.
Then the following year, which, by the way, will add expense, because people are going to go figure that out. Long-term it might be better because they’re going to have to not rebuild them as often. But short-term you’re going to spend research and development dollars to figure out how to make that engine combination work best.
Then on top of that we’re going to put the Car of Tomorrow on them. I worry about having the funds to support that. I will say that it’s a difficult position if you know you have something out there that’s safer and you know you have something out there that the drivers will stand a much better chance of survival and that real big impact, it’s hard not to enact it.
But it takes dollars to do that. Currently we see not a lot, probably not as many as we’d like to see well-funded Busch teams. And I think that’s going to get harder in ‘09. It’s a great series. TV ratings are incredible. Viewership is great. But it’s exceptionally expensive to be involved in.
So that’s my biggest concern. But, again, if we know there’s a safer product for us to be using, we’ve got to be using it.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Jeff, for joining us.
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