NASCAR personality Jeff Burton opens up about the return to racing after 9/11
NASCAR on NBC analyst and former Cup driver Jeff Burton has been nicknamed “The Mayor” for his many, diplomatic views on subjects in the sport.
Often asked for his opinion on racing broadcasts, that’s how a recent interview with The Observer began: As a review of NASCAR’s Cup race at Darlington, discussion on his thoughts about the sanctioning body penalizing Kyle Busch for a safety violation during last weekend’s race and a preview of this Saturday’s Cup playoff race at Richmond.
But then the conversation got deeper as Burton detailed his experience as a Cup driver in the series when NASCAR returned to racing in the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001.
“I remember like it was yesterday,” said Burton, who at the time drove for Jack Roush.
Burton shared his experiences from that day and NASCAR’s return to racing at Dover, plus and more on what to watch for in upcoming races in a recent interview with The Observer.
This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Alex Andrejev: What were your impressions of the race at Darlington? I felt like I was glued to my chair for four hours and it was pretty exciting the whole way through.
Jeff Burton: Yeah, it really was. I thought the racing at Darlington all weekend was exceptional. Sunday, in particular, there were just so many things going on. I don’t know statistically, I’d have to go back and look, but with the exception of Talladega, it’s hard to imagine as many playoff drivers having trouble, and it started right off the bat and created this incredible amount of drama, and the racing was great. Playoffs do that. Everybody tries to run better than they were, finish better, win more, and sometimes you can push too hard.
AA: Drivers talked about the track and the playoffs creating chaos at Darlington. Kevin Harvick said something along the lines of “everyone always loses their mind” during the first playoff race. Joey Logano said that people “self-destructed.” Do you think that was a product of the track or the race being the start of playoffs and everyone being antsy? Is it something you expect we’ll see more of this round?
JB: Well, Darlington’s Darlington and it is the most difficult racetrack that NASCAR runs on. It challenges every single thing inside of you. It’s just so damn hard, and the way around that is to just not run hard. Well, that’s an impossible answer to the problem. You have to push. You can’t just say, “Well, I’m at Darlington, so I’ll ride around for (367) laps.” In today’s world, you’ll get lapped. That used to be the strategy; people would run 70, 80%. You can’t do that anymore. It doesn’t work. Then you add the playoffs on it, you’re amped up, you know that you’re going to have to be better than you were in the regular season if you’re going to advance … So all of those things collectively, in my opinion, is why we saw what we saw.
AA: But I guess you could say the same for Richmond and Bristol.
JB: The difference is the track. This is an old-school NASCAR three-race segment. This is as old school as it gets: Darlington, Richmond, Bristol. Darlington being the most challenging of all of them, but second is Bristol. That’s pretty high up on the list. It’s a really, really tough segment of races. The next one is just as difficult (Las Vegas, Talladega, Charlotte Roval). If you’re a driver or team sitting there looking at the first six races, I mean, it’s madness. It’s just crazy races that you’re going to have to navigate through. You can’t go in there with a mentality of “survive and advance.” … And then I also want people to remember this: Almost every driver that we spoke to prior to the playoffs last week mentioned Kevin Harvick not making Phoenix last year, not being in a position to win the playoffs with the year that he had. Almost every one of them mentioned it, so that’s on their brains. They know that they have to perform. And Kevin and his team’s inability to get done what they needed to get done last year has set an example, and that scared a lot of people.
AA: So if you’re a driver below the cutoff heading to Richmond (Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, William Byron, Michael McDowell), obviously you want to win, but how much do you prioritize points?
JB: When this format was first announced, I made it very clear that I thought points are more important now more than they’ve ever been at any point in the history of the sport. People said I was crazy because if you win, you advance. Well, most people don’t win. With this system, points are huge and the majority of people are going to get into the next round by points … Obviously, everybody wants to win, but I don’t think Kyle Busch drives any differently. I don’t think he sits there and says, “Oh my God, we’re in this situation so I’m gonna (drive differently).” He’s gonna be him. And if he’s not, it’s a mistake. He’s gotten where he’s gotten because of who he is … But those decisions are individual. They’re not collective, meaning that every driver goes to Richmond thinking, “OK, here’s my situation.” They’re all different. Personality matters.
AA: I think we saw a lot of Kyle’s personality with his comments on the broadcast this past weekend, so I’m curious what you made of it. NASCAR also fined him for a safety violation for the way he drove into the garage area — hitting cones, sending people scattering.
JB: Well, that’s just Kyle. People love him for him. People hate him for him. Kyle’s gonna be who Kyle’s gonna be. And it’s no more complicated than that. He wears his emotions on his sleeve. He doesn’t really care what you think, and people love him for that, and some people hate him for that. I think that some sort of penalty was warranted (for the garage entry) ... Drivers do have a responsibility. They’re the ones that can control their vehicle and they do have a responsibility to do things in a safe manner around people. NASCAR’s been clear about that … I think some sort of penalty — I don’t know how you justify if it’s $50,000 or $10,000 — But I think NASCAR had to do something because not only are they penalizing Kyle, they’re telling everybody, “Look, we will not allow this to happen.” If you don’t penalize somebody for doing something you wish they hadn’t done, or talked to them or made people aware that’s not acceptable, how do you do it the next time?
AA: Right, it sort of sets a precedent. Shifting to this weekend, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is racing in Saturday’s Xfinity race with a paint scheme honoring and remembering those lost during the 9/11 attacks for the 20th anniversary. Drivers have been talking about how they experienced that day. You were driving for Jack Roush at the time of the attacks. What do you remember about that day and returning to race at Dover afterwards?
JB: Yeah, I remember like it was yesterday. It was clearly a point in my life that I’ll never forget. The actual day of the attacks, I took my kid to school and I was coming back and I heard on the radio — actually, I was probably just taking one kid to school — but I heard on the radio that a plane had hit the towers and I thought, ‘What the hell is that?’ I went to Roush, went to the shop, and things started to unfold, so I went home, because I wanted to watch it on television and see what was happening. And then we were having a meeting in our house and kept the TV on and we watched the (Twin Towers) fall. Anyway, it was a hell of a day for everybody, right? You felt that you were under attack, like this country was under attack and it was pretty clear, pretty quickly that this was an act of terrorism and you were watching people die, and it had a profound impact on everybody. And then that week was crazy, too. I don’t think anybody knew how to act. Everybody was mad. Everybody was sad. We were supposed to race in the Northeast, and I thought we should go race. I actually called (then-NASCAR president) Mike Helton and said, “Mike, we need to race. This country needs us to race. We need to get to the racetrack.” And he’s like, “Jeff, we’re going to take resources. We’ll take resources from this recovery and from all people that need help.” And I’m like, “Oh, I hadn’t considered that.” I can remember I went and played golf one day and there was not an airplane in the sky. The weirdest thing, you know? And then Dover came and it was just an incredible experience. Unity. Patriotism. I mean, the crowd, the grandstands, were rattling. It was a vibration, the emotional environment in there. And I’ll never forget that: What it felt like for a country to be united, for us all to be together and collected and proud to be an American and proud to all be there together. It was a hell of a day and just something I’ll never forget. And it’s something I think back on and I certainly hope we don’t have to have a catastrophic event to get us closer together. I feel like I look back on that after 20 years — gosh, how much has changed in the last 20 years? — and think: Shouldn’t we all take a step back and remember how together we were? Part of living in this country is disagreeing and arguing and all that, and that’s what we should always do, but gosh, can’t we do it more respectfully? Like can’t we find a way to be more together? And it’s kind of sad, really.
AA: Have your kids (then very young) ever brought it up with you or asked about your experiences from then?
JB: Well I’m not gonna share many details of it, but Bobby Labonte and I went, no media, no anything, and spent a day in New York a few days after 9/11. And I’ve shared those experiences with them because that was one of the days that I will always remember. I don’t even know the word to describe it, but it was an unreal experience that Bobby and I, and (then Labonte’s crew chief) Jimmy Makar went and experienced. And I’ve shared all those experiences with them. My family’s a little weird. We talk about a lot of things. We talk very little about racing and we talk a whole lot about what’s going on in the world. We’ve talked a whole lot about 9/11.
AA: We’ll see a lot of remembrance ceremonies at the track this weekend. On the racing side, what else do you think we can expect to see Saturday?
JB: I think the big question for Richmond is will we get multiple grooves? Richmond’s gone through this transition where it was a one-groove racetrack and then it turned into a multi-groove racetrack and then it kind of went back to a one groove. What kind of track are we gonna get? That’s really interesting to me: How does it change? I think that to me is the big question going into the race. The track changing and the track we get really impacts how the drivers have to deal with it, and we won’t know that until the race gets going. This year has been damn good racing. It’s been really, really good racing, and with this much on the line, I just can’t imagine that it won’t be again.
