Newsmaker: Jeff Burton

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Jeff Burton met with the media during a recent test session at the Daytona International Speedway, and he talked about his future with Richard Childress Racing.

Burton, who has four top-five finishes in the Nextel Cup Series point standings, said every team starts a new season with hopes of contending for the championship -- and his team is no different. But he admitted improvements are needed if he's truly going to be a top-five driver again.

Here are some excerpts from that press conference:

Question: How has the transition been since leaving Roush Racing for Richard Childress Racing?

Burton: When we went to RCR, I improved my performance a little bit. Certainly the performance was better but still not where I wanted to be. I think we're headed in the right direction. We know and we knew that we've got to be better than we were last year. Every team has got to be better. We're focused hard on making improvements so we can be better. We've brought in a lot of new people. We've changed a lot of the things that are going on. Time will tell whether that works or not. We have a high degree of confidence whether that works or not. We also understand there are some hurdles to overcome. We're in the process of refocusing energy so we can get RCR to where Richard is used to being in. I feel good about where my team's headed. I think our pit crew will be as good as anybody on pit road. Kevin (Hamlin, crew chief) and I are getting along extremely well. We have very progressive engineering and shock programs. I feel good about it. But I've gone into most years feeling good about those years, too. All in all, I'm confident. We do have a lot of questions that need to be answered.

We've not had a chance to run on the new Goodyear tires. So we have no idea what that's about, but by the way, nobody does. A lot of people are really confident about where they're headed. Some of that's false security. Until you get those tires and start running on them, you really don't know what you have. We know the competition's tough. We've prepared ourselves and focused on the areas we need to improve on and hopefully that will yield results.

Question: How much of the responsibility do you take in restoring RCR back to the top?

Burton: Well, I have a role to play and I need to execute to the best of my ability as long as everybody else. If people at RCR or people outside of RCR think that I can come in and fix it by myself, I can't. I can fix a portion of it, but so can Kevin Hamlin, so can the other crew chiefs and drivers. When I accepted the position to drive this car, I did it knowing that Richard wanted me to come in and be a leader and more than just a guy who shows up on Friday afternoon to sit in the car. I relish that opportunity. I enjoy that opportunity. I've asked my team and Richard to keep that part of my program focused on performance. I don't want to get into how to design buildings and what color the car will be and all of that (stuff) that I got caught up in over the past five years. I want to pay attention to what makes these cars go fast. And, when we have an issue and we have something we need to get involved in to make these cars go fast, I want to be in the middle of it and I want to be pushing and screaming when we don't get it. That's what my role will be. I think I can help with that and focus our energies where they need to be focused. I think I can be a great driver for them. So, I'm trying to do both, but I don't want to get so far into the other part that I forget I have to be a driver.

Question: Is it realistic to believe your team can be a top-10 contender?

Burton: There's no doubt it's a realistic goal. If you look at our performance last year in the last 14 races, we would have been a top-10 team, although we're on the cusp of not being a top-10 team if we flipped over any and didn't do as well as we did last year. We can't digress any. We only can make improvements. If we digress in any area, we better make an improvement in two -- because we weren't good enough last year to falter any. We've got to be better than we were last year. In those last races, we wrecked on the third lap at Homestead which was a ridiculous wreck we should have never been in. We had a problem at Dover when we cut a right front tire. Other than that, we ran in the top 10 pretty much every race. We had a great chance to win Talladega. We ended up breaking an engine late and still finished 12th on seven cylinders. I feel good about it. I think our short track and road-course programs are going to be good. If we've done our homework and our aero program, then we'll run well on the 1.5-mile tracks as well. That's my biggest concern. If our aero program is good and we have reliability, we're certainly going to be a top-10 team.

Question: Your brother Ward is without a ride. What is he going to do?

Burton: Ward and I have spoken quite a bit. Ward has had some offers. Ward has made the decision that he wants to drive for a good team. He doesn't just want to come here and not be able to be competitive. To date, he's made the decision that he wants to be in Cup. He doesn't want to run a Busch car or a truck. I'll be honest: I've tried to change his mind on that because I think Ward is very skilled and very talented. He's played the game very patiently. He's decided he is just going to do it the way he's going to do it. I respect him a lot for that. But right now it just doesn't look like it's going to work out. It looks a little bleak, but I'm sure that through some changes early in the year something will shake loose. I don't care if you're racing or whatever you're doing, when it's time to be done, you want that to be your decision. Ward still feels like he has unfinished business here. He's a capable driver. Unfortunately he's gotten caught up in the fact that people want to hire 12 year-olds. They don't want to hire a guy who has experience. They want to hire a kid who doesn't know anything. That trend will change. We've all seen it go both ways. It'll go back the other way one day. But right now, that's what everybody wants to do and Ward has gotten caught up in that.

Question: NASCAR is going to cut a half-inch off the rear spoiler this year. What will that do to the cars?

Burton: I don't know. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not real sure what the theory is behind it. I've never even asked what the theory is behind it. My assumptions are that the softer tires will make the grip and that less downforce will make these cars where you don't get the aero-push. But I'm going to tell you something. You're going to have an aero-push no matter what you do. And you'll not be complaining about the tight as much as far as pushing goes, but you might be so loose that you can't worry about the push, but you'll still be pushing. I don't know. I'd like to think that it's going to make the racing better than it was, but I thought that the level of racing was pretty darn good. I thought it was way up there. We've run at Kentucky several times. So, I don't know what to expect. That's not a very good answer, but it's the only one I've got.

Question: Do you feel a sense of responsibility because Earnhardt wanted you to be with RCR to begin with?

Burton: "I have a lot of respect for that. My feeling of responsibility doesn't change because of that because whether he wanted me there or Richard wanted me there or whatever, my responsibility is to do my part to get it back to the top. I hold Richard Childress and Dale Earnhardt in the same regard because they did it together. So, no, I don't feel more responsibility but I do feel a huge amount of respect for that and a huge amount of reverence for that, for sure. In my fitness room, there's a picture of Earnhardt and Childress in victory lane together and it's been there for several years. Those two together did a lot of great things. That's the relationship that I've been looking for. You need me and I need you and let's go do it together. So, I have respect for it, but I don't feel an overwhelming responsibility for it."