Years later, Burton still that same affable guy

I remember Jeff Burton's first career win like it was yesterday. Well, it wasn't. It was the first race at the Texas Motor Speedway in the spring of 1997. I was working for ESPN at the time and the race was, as they say, on another network.

But Jeff Burton had actually been working for our network. He was doing a little TV on the side in case that racing thing never really worked out. Just kidding about that part, but he really was a "correspondent" for RPM 2Night. He has always been one of the most eloquent and polite drivers in that I have ever met in all of motorsports. The wonderful thing about his contributions was that he did a variety of things for the show, some playful, some serious.

Jeff Burton once did a piece from a track where was competing in a Truck Series race. He was explaining some of the characteristics of the truck and comparing them to a Cup car. At the end of the piece, he unloaded groceries from the bed of the truck.

Jeff Burton could also walk you through some of the most technical or touchy stories in the garage. He was outstanding and I think it meant a lot to the younger people on our staff that he would actually take the time and give his full attention to the piece. I had known Jeff for a few years but for the newer people at RPM 2Night I think they felt like they were on his team, instead of him being on ours. Jeff Burton can do that, you know, make a new friend feel like an old pal.

After Jeff Burton won at Texas we asked him to come down and be on the set with John Kernan. The studio was just outside of Charlotte and Jeff Burton agreed. That wasn't the best part; the best part was he brought his wife, Kim, with him. We didn't really have a "no autographs" policy at RPM but it was pretty much understood that unless the circumstances were special, autographs were a no-no. I think everyone got a Jeff Burton autograph that night. It was like we were part of the winning team and our driver had come by the shop to say hello.

We gave Jeff and Kim a bottle of champagne as a congratulatory gift.

I can't speak for everyone that worked on that show, but that was certainly one of my favorite days there.

It is now 10 years later and a lot of things have changed since then; Jeff Burton is not one of them. He is still polite, still eloquent, and still winning. In 1997 he Jeff Burton turned 30 years old, he won in Texas, he finished fourth in the standings; Jeff Gordon won the championship. This season he turned 40, he won at Texas, he heads into Watkins Glen fourth in points; Jeff Gordon is the championship leader.

Recently, Jeff Burton was leaning on a table in the garage at Indianapolis during a rainout. He and Robbie Reiser, crew chief for Matt Kenseth and a former "teammate" with Jeff Burton at Roush Racing, were solving the problems of the world, and the sport. I just listened. They told stories, laughed, talked about their kids and tried to come up with a plan for qualifying when the schedule had to be shortened because of bad weather.

I followed Jeff Burton back to his hauler. He had made a stop in the NASCAR rig and was walking toward the back of the garage where the trucks are parked. Along the way he stopped to talk to a few people, signed autographs and did a radio interview, all in the rain.

Jeff Burton was in Indianapolis, where it does rain in the summertime, and his disposition was as bright as ever.

"I love what I do," was his explanation.

"I enjoy the people, I really enjoy the opportunity to compete. I'm a competitive person from a competitive family," Jeff Burton said.

"I take a lot of pride being able to compete at a high level and at the same time, I have a great deal of respect for the people I'm trying to beat which is why I get enjoyment when I'm able to beat them. And it's also what wakes me up in the morning, when they beat me. I know we're racing against some of the very best in the business and we're not always going to be where we need to be but that doesn't mean we can't get there. So, respecting my competition helps me a great deal both when we beat them and when we get beat."

Jeff Burton has made 460 starts in the Cup Series. He has 19 wins. He went four full seasons without a win, 2002-2005. He posted one victory in 2006.

"What we're doing right now is building on last year. We came into last year feeling good about ourselves, thinking we had made some really good moves in the offseason. We were able to capitalize on that last year, run well, win a race, lead a lot of laps and stuff but we didn't capitalize on that as much as we could have," Jeff Burton said.

"This year, we approached it as trying to capitalize on the opportunities ahead of us. We haven't done as well in some areas that we need to do; we need to find a way to be a little bit quicker, a little bit faster. I've got to find a way to get a little more lap time out of the car. But we are a team currently that can have a bad day and make something decent happen out of it."

That's good to know, because not many decent things have happened for Jeff Burton in recent races at Watkins Glen. He was 11th last year, 43rd the year before, 12th in 2004 and 31st in 2003. In his 13 starts there he has three top-10 finishes and they all came in consecutive races: third in 2000 followed by a second and a seventh. This season he has six top-five and 11 top-10 finishes in the 21 races.

"This is going to sound stupid," Jeff Burton said, "but I don't look at the year as a year. I look at the year as 36 races and I judge how we're doing on the week that were doing it. We're fourth in points, we've won a race, but I'm not looking at it as a successful year, I'm looking at it as we didn't run as well last week as we needed to; what do we need to do to be better? When the year is over we'll step back and look a the year."

Jeff Burton likes to think his way through a race. If this were the tortoise and the hare thing, Jeff Burton probably wouldn't mind being the hare, because he knows he can outthink the tortoise.

"I try not change the way I drive," he said.

"I try to be consistent in how I race. I think when you start changing who you are, that's a mistake. Now, from time to time in certain situations you might have to change, but I approach Indy the same way I approached California the beginning of the year; that was let's go there, try to find a way to win. If we can't win then let's finish second, if we can't finish second let's finish third. But let's don't take a third and make it a 10th. I pretty much try to race like that all the time."

And Jeff isn't the only member of the Jeff Burton household that races that way. Kim says their son, Harrison, has that same style when he's on the track.

Harrison is 6 and into quarter midgets, his sister, Paige, is 12 and into horses.

"We have a lot of stuff moving," Jeff said.

"I enjoy the experiences of my children and I like to think I'm learning [from them] and I can help my children learn. I really enjoy watching them do things that makes them better people," Jeff Burton said, with a laugh.

"And that doesn't just mean things that they did well. There are times in life when there was a lesson that they learned and they can move forward from it.

"I do enjoy the opportunity to have somebody that whether they want to or not, they have to listen to me, or make them wish they had. Being a parent makes me look back at what my parents did with me with a much greater understanding and much greater appreciation.

"When I'm 70 and my kids are talking about what I did for them, I want them to understand I didn't do it all right, but I was trying to."

When it comes to the youngest Jeff Burton on the track, mom and dad are a tag team.

"From a stress management standpoint I think it [the racing] drives Kim more crazy. I'm into the, 'What do we need to do to make the car go faster? What do we need to do to make Harrison drive better?' I'm into that. She's into making sure I don't do that too much."

When you talk to Jeff Burton about his kids you can measure the enjoyment by the size of his smile, even if those aren't the most economically friendly hobbies for your kids.

"It isn't cheap being into quarter midgets and horses, I can assure you," he said with another laugh.

"But, we're lucky enough that we can do those things for our children. I'm also lucky enough to understand because of what my parents did for me, that they need to appreciate what they're able to do because not everybody is able to that. My children are blessed from that standpoint but I want them to appreciate it. The things they have they can lose really quickly and that's really clear to them."

That's kind of how racing goes, too. You're winning, you're successful and all of a sudden the success leaves and you're not winning anymore. Jeff Burton knows there were people who said his career was over, that television, not Victory Lane, was in his future. They were wrong.

Jeff Burton is on the way to the Chase for the second consecutive season, and you can bet he appreciates that.

"I've always wanted to race," he said.

"I'm 40 and doing it, and I can't complain."

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.

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