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April 10, 2012

Jeff Burton Event Preview: Samsung Mobile 500

"Texas Motor Speedway is different anytime we run there. That is why we have seen so many different winners."

Event Preview Fact Sheet

Jeff Burton
No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet

Event/Date:
Samsung Mobile 500
April 14, 2012

Venue:
Texas Motor Speedway

Race Notes and Quotes:
This Week’s Caterpillar Chevrolet at Texas Motor Speedway … Jeff Burton will race chassis No. 385 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable this weekend. This is a brand new No. 31 Chevrolet that will turn its first laps this weekend.

No Stranger to Victory Lane … Burton was Texas Motor Speedway’s first two-time Sprint Cup Series race winner after visiting Victory Lane in the inaugural Sprint Cup Series event in 1997 and again in 2007. Burton has also tallied three top-five and nine top-10 finishes while leading 180 laps at the 1.5-mile facility.

Loopy in the “Lone Star State” … Burton has garnered impressive NASCAR Loop Data statistics at Texas Motor Speedway since 2006. He has spent 2,591 laps running in the top 15 and made 982 green-flag passes (seventh-most).

Featured Cat Dealers … HOLT CAT, Mustang Cat and Warren Car will be featured on the deck lid of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.

•    HOLT CAT sells, rents and services Caterpillar machines, engines and generator sets in a 118-county Texas territory spanning from the Red River to the Rio Grande. HOLT CAT also offers total machine and engine rebuild capabilities, sells used equipment around the world and fabricates its own line of land clearing equipment and HOLT Spray King® water tankers. The Holt name has been associated with heavy equipment and Caterpillar for over 100 years. Peter M. Holt, chief executive officer, is the great-grandson of Benjamin Holt, who in 1904 developed the first successful track-type tractor which he named the “Caterpillar.” HOLT CAT has come to be synonymous with quality, integrity and commitment to customer service. The HOLT CAT team of 1,700 men and women are committed to providing rock solid stability with superior products and services to heavy equipment and engine users from the Red River to the Rio Grande®. For more information, visit www.holtcat.com.

•    Mustang Cat is the southeast Texas authorized sales, parts and service dealer for Caterpillar construction equipment and engines. The family of Mustang companies is comprised of: Construction Machinery - Caterpillar construction equipment and a selected group of allied lines, Power Systems - Caterpillar engines as well as the design, engineering and fabrication of state-of-the-art engine packages in a vast range of power ratings, Rental Services - The Cat Rental Store, offering Caterpillar and allied lines of large and small equipment for the building construction industry. For more information, visit www.mustangcat.com or call 1.888.NEXT.CAT.

•    Warren CAT proudly serves customers throughout sixteen locations in West Texas and the State of Oklahoma. Dedicated to providing customers complete solutions for their equipment needs, from heavy machinery to industrial engines, Warren CAT is segmented by five divisions to better serve the needs of our customers: Heavy Construction/Governmental, Rental/General Construction, Engines/Generators/Vocational Trucks, Ag, and Parts & Service. Warren's capabilities extend beyond their ability to offer the leading name in heavy equipment by dedicating their focus to providing customers with the finest service in the industry. As part of the Caterpillar dealer network, Warren's product support capabilities are vast, offering customers universal support at a local level.

Building a Legacy … During his 20-year Sprint Cup Series career, the veteran RCR driver has earned 21 wins, 131 top-five and 244 top-10 finishes in 625 starts. Burton has also tallied six pole awards and led 6,506 laps.

Race Rewind … Burton and the No. 31 BB&T Chevrolet team finished 22nd in the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway after suffering electrical issues just past the halfway mark of the event.

Points Racing … Burton sits 15th in the Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings, just 25 points out of the final Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup spot.

JEFF BURTON QUOTES:

Is it frustrating to have had so much success at a track like Texas Motor Speedway and then recently have the kind of runs you have had there?
“That just shows you how hard the sport is. I know that no matter how well we ran one week, it doesn’t mean we are going to run that poorly the following week. It’s a constant test of where you and your team are and this is a very demanding sport. Honestly, none of our performances last year looked very good and it was just a continuation of what had gone on for the entire season. I think we have run better than many of our finishes indicated. Texas Motor Speedway is different anytime we run there. That is why we have seen so many different winners. That track doesn’t have a personality. Every time you go there, it is something different. I think that is why you see so many drivers run well there one race and then terrible the next. I don’t know why, but it is different every time we go there.”

Your finishes last year were 11th and 27th. Were those races the type of events where you said to yourself, “We ran better than that”?
“The 11th-place finish was about right, but we ran better than 27th in the November race last year. Again, last year it took a long time before we started finishing where we were supposed to. Even the 11th-place finish, I think we ran better than that during the race, and we had a problem late in the race which was frustrating, like much of our season. The fact of the matter is that we as a team can say we finished better than we ran or we finished worse than we ran, they give you points based on where you finish, and that’s what really matters. You have to understand what got you there because when you understand what got you there it gives you the opportunity to move forward, but you can ignore where you finished.”

You talked about Texas Motor Speedway changing. Is it changing in a certain way?
“It is definitely getting rough. The bumps are getting rougher and the track is losing some grip. When we used to go there, turn two was just horrible, You couldn’t get the car to turn off turn two and now everyone comes off of it pretty well and they have trouble off turn four. I don’t know why that is. It is part aging asphalt and part track officials changing it a few times. It is always going through the evolution of normal change. When that happens, it typically just loses grip. You go there one time and people run the bottom line, you go there the next and people run the top. That’s hard to explain.”

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