• This Week’s LENOX Industrial Tools Chevrolet at New Hampshire Motor Speedway … Jeff Burton will pilot Chassis No. 255 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. Built new for 2008, this is the same Chevy Impala SS Burton drove to a 21st-place finish at Pocono last August where a late-race pit road penalty cost him a potential top-five finish. Two weeks later, the veteran driver piloted this machine to an 11th-place effort at Michigan. He then drove this chassis to a seventh-place finish at Kansas, a 13th-place effort at Texas in November and then capped off the season at Homestead-Miami where myriad handling issues, coupled with a mid-race incident, relegated Burton to a 40th-place result. Since then, this No. 31 racer has been converted from its original downforce configuration into a short-track car. It made its 2009 debut at Martinsville in March where Burton finished 15th and followed that up with a third-place finish at Richmond in May.

• Record Holder … Burton holds the most track records at NHMS - most wins (four), most laps led by a race winner (300 – September 2000), least laps led by a race winner (two – July 1999) and track race record (Time 2:42:35, Speed 117.134 mph – July 1999).

• Loudon Details … In 28 Sprint Cup Series starts at NHMS, Burton boasts four wins, seven top-five and 12 top-10 finishes and has led for a total of 694 laps. He has a 20th-place starting average coupled with a respectable 12.8 finishing average. Additionally, the South Boston, Va., native is one of four drivers who have competed in all 28 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events at the “Magic Mile.”

• Where It All Began … NHMS is the site of Burton’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start on July 11, 1993. The 41-year-old driver started sixth and finished 37th driving for Filbert Martocci’s No. 0 entry. Since then, Burton has recorded six poles, 21 wins, 119 top fives, 218 top 10s and has led 5,813 laps in 527 races throughout 16 seasons on NASCAR’s senior circuit.

• Happy Birthday, Jeff … Burton will celebrate his 42nd birthday on Monday, June 29.

• Change of Scenery … LENOX’s associate sponsorship of RCR’s No. 31 Chevrolet kicks into high gear this weekend in New Hampshire as Burton and the No. 31 team transform their black and yellow No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet into a red, white and blue LENOX racing machine for the LENOX Industrial Tools 301. LENOX produces band saw blades, sawing fluids and hand power tool accessories in over 70 countries around the world.

• RCR at NHMS … Richard Childress is tied for third all time with Joe Gibbs and Roger Penske for car owner victories at NHMS with three – Robby Gordon (2001), Kevin Harvick (2006) and Clint Bowyer (2007). In 66 starts at the 1.058-mile oval, Childress also boasts two poles, 11 top-five and 27 top-10 finishes with nine different drivers including Dale Earnhardt, Mike Skinner, Harvick, Gordon, Jeff Green, Steve Park, Dave Blaney, Bowyer and Burton.

• The Collective RCR … In 16 races this season, RCR-prepared Sprint Cup Series entries have notched seven top-five and 16 top-10 finishes. The No. 29 team kicked off the 2009 season with a win in the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona. RCR-prepared cars have also completed 18,446 laps with four different drivers including Burton, Bowyer, Harvick and Mears. Meanwhile, RCR teams have been atop the leaderboard for 95 laps and all four teams have earned just shy of $10 million combined purse money in 2009.

• Let the Race Begin … This weekend’s Sprint Cup Series event at NHMS starts the “Race to the Chase” – the 10-race stretch preceding the “Chase for the Sprint Cup,” which begins when NASCAR’s premiere division returns to the 1.058-mile track in September. Over the same 10 “Race to the Chase” races last year, Burton earned one top-10 and four top-15 finishes, posting an average finish of 19.1. The 16-year veteran driver currently sits 15th in the point standings, 46 markers in arrears to the coveted 12th-place position. At the same time, only 138 points separate Burton and Denny Hamlin’s seventh-place tally.

• Welcome Home, Matt … RCR’s Director of Human Performance and Leadership Development Matt Clark hails from North Haven, Conn., located approximately 190 miles southwest of NHMS. Clark, who joined the Welcome, N.C.-based operation in 2008, is charged with assembling and coaching RCR’s Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series’ over-the-wall pit crews. Clark also led the CAT Racing over-the-wall team to the 2009 Pit Crew Challenge championship in May. Clark is a graduate of Carter Oak Stage College in New Britain, Conn. and, before making the jump to motorsports, he was the assistant athletic director, sports information director and assistant baseball coach for Albertus Magnus College in New Haven.

• LENOX Goes the Extra Mile … In addition to the added mile in this weekend’s LENOX Industrial Tools 301, LENOX will announce the winner of their Extra Mile Hero contest inside the NHMS infield media center Sunday, June 28 at 10:45 a.m. Throughout the year, LENOX asked America to submit stories about their heroes, users and suppliers of industrial tools, who go the extra mile for their community. LENOX’s Extra Mile Hero will receive $31,000 with an additional $31,000 donated to their charity of choice. However, if Burton wins the LENOX Industrial Tools 301, LENOX will increase the grand prize to $1 million for the winner to split equally with their charity of choice.

• Catch the Action … The LENOX Industrial Tools 301 at NHMS will be televised live Sunday, June 28 beginning at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on TNT and will broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network and Sirius SM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 17th of 36 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events will take the green flag at 3 p.m. EDT Friday, June 26 and will be telecast live on SPEED.

JEFF BURTON QUOTES:

You’ve finished in the top 10 in five out of the last seven races in Loudon. What’s it going to take to continue your “most wins” streak?

“The track is a lot different than it used to be. It has a lot of grip and when we were real good there, the track was real low on grip. As the track has gained grip, rear grip has become not that big of an issue and is the reason we haven’t been as successful. (Kevin) Harvick and (Clint) Bowyer have but we haven’t. They have been their best at places like Phoenix and New Hampshire and we tend to lean on them some when we come to places like this.”

How do you feel about RCR’s flat-track program?

“Pretty good. We didn’t run as well as we wanted to in Phoenix but ran really well in Richmond. We changed some things around since the last flat-track race and went to work putting a car together that we think will produce a good result.”

RCR used to go to The Milwaukee Mile to test for races such as this weekend’s race. Has the testing ban hurt the team’s race preparations?

“The testing ban has hurt us more than I think it’s hurt a lot of people because we did test so much. I tested well over 30 days last year and we don’t have that now so it has hurt us. Addressing the problem has been important to us. The fans look at us as a team that hasn’t run well but there’s a reason we’re not running well. I know the effort that is going into fixing it and what is going on behind closed doors shows me that it will get fixed.”

The “Race to the Chase” begins this weekend. How important will these next 10 races be?

"Obviously, as the races get closer to two or three to go before the last 10, we've got a tremendous amount of emphasis put on it. However, we can't forget that they pay the same amount of points for the third race of the year as they do for the 25th race of the year. So, all the work that we've done up to this point is what matters and every race by itself matters a great deal. The emphasis will be put on these closing races. At the end of the day, it's an accumulation of all the points you gained in the first 26, so it really doesn't make that race any more important than any other."