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Burton - is he a whiner or is he right?
I think Burton seems like a good guy but he has too much to say sometimes. Seems to be the other guys fault every time something doesn't go his way.
Headline - Jeff Burton calls racing at Sonoma ‘horrendous,’ says Sprint Cup Series is turning into a demolition derby - scenedaily.com
http://www.scenedaily.com/news/articles/sprintcupseries/Jeff_Burton...
LOUDON, N.H. – Veteran driver Jeff Burton lashed out at his Sprint Cup Series peers Friday over their performance during the final laps
last week at Infineon Raceway, saying the driving and late-race contact
was “horrendous” and “ridiculous.”
Burton was one of the victims when Marcos Ambrose spun him while trying to get back to the front after Ambrose lost the lead
with seven laps remaining when he accidentally stalled his car on the
track. Ambrose tried to call Burton this week to apologize. Burton said
he understood Ambrose’s motive and frustration at the end of the race
but doesn’t understand why the racing overall was so rough late in the
event.
For Burton, it was NASCAR’s “boys have at it” mantra taken to an extreme.
“The last 10 laps of that race, it didn’t look like we were the best drivers in this country,” Burton said Friday prior to
practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “It looked like we were some
of the worst drivers in this country.
“It’s just ridiculous. … That race has just turned into a demolition derby. It had nothing to do with road-course and experience.
It has to do with respect. Everybody in this garage knows how to use
the brake pedal and use the throttle and use the steering wheel and
chose not to do it correctly because it was in their best interest to
run over the guy in front of them, or they were trying really hard not
to get run over from behind.”
Not all drivers agreed with Burton.
“It was just good racing, honestly,” said his Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick, who stayed out of trouble at
Infineon three weeks after making contact with Joey Logano at Pocono.
“It was probably one of the most exciting road-course races that I’ve
watched. … I went back and watched the race and it looked like the
majority of them had the No. 24 [of Jeff Gordon] involved, and I saw the
No. 20 [of Logano] get dumped again for running into the side of
somebody, so that one hasn’t changed.”
At one point late in the race, Burton got into Mark Martin during a three-wide battle. Martin brushed it off as just the nature of racing in 2010.
“It wasn’t just last week,” Martin said. “It happens all the time. [Respect] is getting worse mostly because the nature of our
racing and the growth of the sport. You wouldn’t be able to keep a job
if you raced 20 years ago and you wrecked as many cars as you wreck
today.”
Burton said he likes aggressive racing but not disrespect.
“The respect shown last week from driver to driver was completely unacceptable,” he said. “If our sport’s going to become that,
then we need to change that from racing to demolition cars. … It takes
skill to race and not wreck somebody. It takes zero skill to run over
the top of anybody.”
Two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart agreed with Burton: “It was absurd. … I don’t know if there was something in the air last week. It was absolutely out of control.”
It was not a surprise which drivers were involved in the rough driving, Burton said, with the pressure to get into the 12-driver
Chase For The Sprint Cup mounting. There are now 10 races left before
that field is set.
“It’s not a coincidence that a lot of the people that are racing to get in the Chase were involved in the situations,” Burton said. “It’s an extremely competitive sport and there’s a lot at stake.”
Martin said that, at times, he’s in a bind because everyone around him is racing so hard and a driver can’t let up. It’s obviously different than when he started in the 1980s.
“The racing 20 or 25 years ago was about the sport,” Martin said. “It wasn’t really about the thrill. It was about being part
of something that you loved. It was a lot smaller, less entertainment
oriented. If you weren’t one of the top teams, you had to survive. You
couldn’t afford to go out there and wreck these things every week.”
Views: 90
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Keith Stone on
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LOL!!! Infineon was Fun Stuff!!
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Permalink Reply by WJM on
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"Between 1947 and the year 2000, we had racing and then something that came after it - whatever name you want to put on it. I am not criticizing it. This is by far several hundred times more successful than we were, but, if I was a racer, then these guys competing today aren't. And if these guys are racers, then I never was.
"That doesn't mean I consider that we were better, nor do I consider them better than us. The fact is this doesn't resemble what we had, what we started out with. It doesn't mean it is bad. It is now operating as entertainment and has nothing to do with the sport. When we started, my pleasure was, the reason I did it, was I'd like to step out on the line Sunday morning and pull my pants up and say, 'Let's have a race.' If I won, I was happy. And if I didn't, I was already thinking about what I was going to change next week to beat their ass.
"Maybe I'm not seeing it right, but I feel sorry for those coming behind me. Looks like the freedom to do the things I did are being lost with thousands of new laws restricting what you can or can't do. Hell, in the beginning race winnings weren't even taxed. Now you can't turn around without permission. In the early days, you didn't need a lot of money to race. You raced for the fun and for the hell of it.
"Big money did try to come in and take over racing, but it always failed. Now, big money's got a good grip on auto racing. If you are wired in, that's fine but if you are trying to break in, there is a mighty tough fence you're gonna have to cut through. I guess it's really better to look at racing today in a different way. It's no longer a sport; it's show business."
~ Smokey Yunick, 2001
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Permalink Reply by Beagle7 on
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Ahhh the good ol 'days.....measles, mumps, polio, insert miserable thing that existed between 1900-1960....lol.
But hey, you could race on Sunday and cheat your way to victoy and that was considered sport....Yay Smokey!
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Permalink Reply by amy on
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I watched Jeff and Ward come up through the ranks of the then Busch series and into the cup series. I can say that both whined and accused others every time things didn't go their way. I remember one race at Daytona in which Dave Marcus was cut off by Ward which caused a big wreck. Ward said Marcus was at fault and blah, blah, blah, whining about how drivers like Marcus didn't belong on the track because he was laps down, yada, yada. I don't remember either one ever taking blame for anything they did. But then Jeff has said he was going into politics after racing, so I suppose he's practicing for all the lies he is going to tell while in office-provided he wins of course. lol
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Permalink Reply by Matt on
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No, I am not a Burton fan in the least but he is dead on. The way many drivers performed last week was an embarrassment to the sport of auto racing. I started a thread on just this topic. It was like watching a video game. Apparently someone will have to get seriously injured to calm things back down.
Until then, it's like that episoide of family guy where "death" twists his ankle, allowing people to do anything and everything without get hurt or killed. With no consiquences, it's just going to get worse. Burtons problem, in my mind, is he comments on this stuff but doesn't take action. Earnhardt at least would have sat these morons down and gave them an ear full, not just complained to the media. If they didn't listen, they would end up in the wall until they did. Just my opinion. Rubbing and bumping is enjoyable, but last week was another level.
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Permalink Reply by b-makk on
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when they refer to a punt as 'he just got Kesolowskied' you know you're in trouble because Kesoloski(?) & Logano are supposed to be the future. It just keeps going downhill.
I think Burton's partially right but he cries more than a french soccer player
btw, that's an awesome quote WJM. Hits the nail dead on the head.
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Permalink Reply by C2B on
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Obviously Mr Burton and Mr Martin forgot what brought NASCAR to prominence, Cale and Donnie wrecking at Daytona. Dale Sr was known for running into everyone. He wasn't called the Intimidator because he had great racing etiquette, just ask Terry Labonte. I think Burton and Martin are great drivers, but it is like World Cup and all of the flopping. Just do your job and stop your whining. Who of us gets to complain about their coworkers in a public forum? I did see Jeff Gordon has a new wine, he may want to call it Nascar Select.
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Permalink Reply by K H on
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Jeff Burton is outspoken on a lot of things...I can deal with that. Jeff Burton is very sportsmanlike on the track...I can deal with that. What I CAN'T FRICKIN' STAND is when he is leading a race with 30 or less laps left, a camera HAS to focus on Kim Burton for the majority of the race, and all you can see is Jeff in one view and Kim in the other. Everything else ceases to exist at this point. Why the hell is that? It happens for NO OTHER driver unless it is a race of some significance or that driver's possible first win. It pisses me off as much as it does when Robby takes the lead or passes an "in the chase" car and the camera mysteriously pans to a different spot on the track.
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Permalink Reply by Saluki7 on
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I think it is hilarious that all the talk on the wrecking and rough driving and for once Robby is clean and nowhere to be blamed
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Permalink Reply by Ms Gibby on
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Yeah, but it still gets on my nerves when all the anti-Robby folk rant that he "causes a wreck every week". Funny, I was looking at an article just the other day about the 10 biggest crashes of 2010 and I didn't see that 7 car in one single picture.
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Permalink Reply by J.R. Sands on
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That's the truth right there.
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