| 2008
Spin:
NASCAR veteran Jeff Burton will climb back inside the No. 29 Holiday Inn Chevy for 12 Nationwide Series races in 2008, splitting seat time with Scott Wimmer.
Burton has enjoyed as much success as any driver in Busch/Nationwide Series history. His 27 career wins rank fourth on the all-time list, trailing only Mark Martin (47 wins), Kevin Harvick (32) and Jack Ingram (31). His five wins last season matched a career high for Nationwide victories initially set in 2002.
Although Burton will run in roughly a third of the Nationwide events this year, expect two or three wins in the same machine that he and Wimmer won the Busch Series Owner’s Championship in last season.
Jeff Burton foresees a simple solution to fixing his problems from ’07 — racing’s most basic element.
Speed.
“We’re smart, we’re intelligent, we’ve got a very experienced team,” he explains. “We’re good there — we just need speed. We just need to go faster.”
As silly as it sounds, Burton’s half right. Stringing together top-15 streaks of at least eight races the last two years, RCR’s veteran driver and his AT&T crew have proven their consistency. They possess what many teams lack — a solid game plan and subsequent execution week-in and week-out. Problem is, that strategy plateaus at fourth-to-eighth-place finishes more often than not, while other title contenders run top 3. It’s these near-miss finishes that have prevented a legitimate championship run from this team.
But to take that next step, you don’t just need more speed. You need aggression. That’s the other element Burton has lacked; but quite honestly, it’s tough to foresee a major shift in his philosophy.
Burton, as close to a union rep as there is in a garage void of a union, is a heady racer that balks at taking unnecessary risks. His style of racing works well within the RCR framework, but restricts his visits to Victory Lane. It’s the old adage of, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” This bunch needs to throw caution to the wind with an aggressive pit call or a go-for-broke three-wide pass in order to get that Eye of the Tiger back.
Burton and his teammates do benefit from the deep resources of RCR’s commitment to indestructible equipment, and with crew chief Scott Miller, Burton enjoys some of the best chemistry on top of the pit box he’s had his whole career. Coupled with the driver’s smooth and steady style, they make for very few DNFs, which have kept this team in the top 10 for consecutive seasons. Ironically, the only two engine failures in the program’s Cup stable came under the hood of the No. 31 in ’07, but with the DEI-RCR engine partnership, reliability should improve as 2008 progresses.
A win or two and as many as 15 top-10 runs can be expected out of the No. 31 team this year. Burton’s ability and consistency should also lead the bunch back into the Chase for a third consecutive season.
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