 |
| Jeff Burton takes Reed Sorenson on a tour of pit row. |
Sitting in 11th in points, he's come a long way since his consecutive 18th-place finishes in 2004 and 2005. When he jumped out of his unsponsored Roush Racing car to drive for Richard Childress midway through the 2004 season, he looked more washed-up than Axl Rose. (Rubbing Castrol in the wounds was young stud Carl Edwards, who scored five top-10 finishes in 13 races using Burton's old car.) At that point, it seemed like it was time to put Burton into the irrelevant bin with Sterling Marlin, RC Cola, and the Democratic Party.
This year, however, Burton is back to his old form. He hasn't finished in the top 10 of the points since Bill Elliott was still chewing solid food, but it looks like Burton should be a dark horse for the title when the playoff races begin in September. Four races doesn't make or break a season—anyone can pull of a couple of fluke finishes (just look at Kyle Petty's taking eighth in Atlanta)—but Burton's strong runs don't appear to be lucky or abnormal. He has qualified well in all four races and seems to finally be comfortable in the RCR Chevrolets after spending almost nine years in Roush Fords.
So welcome back to title contention, Jeff. Now back to the never-ending coverage of Dale Jr.'s pets, Jamie McMurray's hair, and Kasey Kahne's army of screeching tweens.