Nascar and Racing Jeff Burton

Where: Lowe's Motor Speedway, Concord, N.C.
Time: Saturday 7:30 p.m./EST
TV/Radio: ABC, PRN Radio
Twitter: Updates @ FanHouseRacing
Forecast: Mostly cloudy, 40s, 20% rain
Distance: 334 laps (500.1 miles)
Pole Winner: Jimmie Johnson
2008 Winner: Jeff Burton

Carl Edwards may blame last year's loss to Jimmie Johnson in the Chase for the Sprint Cup on a crash at Talladega, but a finish in last year's fall race at Lowe's Motor Speedway provided all the points Johnson needed to win his third consecutive title.

Or, rather, the necessary point.

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INDIANAPOLIS -- So far, so good.

Two hour-long practice sessions Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway eased the minds of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams concerned with tire wear for Sunday's AllState 400 at the Brickyard.

"It is done, they have created a great tire,'' said four-time Brickyard winner Jeff Gordon, who, following a June tire test, promised fans that Goodyear had fixed the problems that wreaked havoc on last year's race when tire wear forced drivers to pit every 10-15 laps.

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The pre-race buzz is understandably high for the double-file re-starts NASCAR is implementing in the Sprint Cup Series Sunday at Pocono, Pa.

But the real story isn't so much the exciting midseason change in format, but NASCAR's willingness to make a midseason change in format.

Say what you want about stock car's benevolent dictatorship, but in the last few years, the hard-line has been replaced with the open-line. And NASCAR's willingness to adapt -- in the name of more exciting competition -- may be the very thing that keeps it relevant and afloat in these tricky economic times.

Warning: Objects in this post may be the only way to successfully live through the NASCAR off-season. For best results, read rearview mirror early and often.

Driver: Jeff Burton
Team: No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
'08 Final Standing: 6th (-349)
Best Race: Bristol & Charlotte (1st)
Worst Race: Bristol (42nd-place)

Season in a box: 2008 was nothing more than the same old song and dance for Jeff Burton. So much, in fact, that I'm ready to start a lobby for a new nickname for Burton that is both bland and consistent. Ideas, anyone?

Jeff Burton made a valiant effort to catch Kyle Busch at the end of Friday night's Nationwide Series race at Lowe's Motor Speedway but came up short.

Saturday night, the rest of the Sprint Cup field was coming up short on a gambling Jeff Burton.

The NASCAR season truly kicks in Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup begins. From now through Friday, FanHouse will preview each of the 12-drivers and evaluate their championship chances.

7th - Jeff Burton, RCR Chevrolet

Starting Deficit: 70 points

Kyle Busch will start on the pole for Sunday's Lifelock 400 at Michigan International Speedway, but he certainly won't be dissing NASCAR's newest car this weekend.

NASCAR held an unusual meeting with drivers and car owners one half hour prior to the morning's first practice Friday to lay down the law on what drivers need to be saying about the Car of Tomorrow project.

That's Racin's David Poole called it a "Come to Jesus"-style meeting.

Many drivers wouldn't even discuss it.

But what we do know is that NASCAR made it clear that its simply tired of hearing the constant negativity about the performance of the car being used for the first time on full time in 2008.

A key message of the meeting apparently was that NASCAR fans are being let down by the constant bashing, and that they shouldn't be subject to that for coming to a spectator event for enjoyment. There must have been enforcement policies laid down because hardly a soul was giving deep info about the get-together.

To me, telling the teams they should handle a problematic situation by putting on the rose-colored glasses doesn't seem like an effective way to solve problems. Doubly, as a NASCAR fan, it shows me that NASCAR truly has reached a point where it cannot make any legitimate changes in the near future to increase the quality of Sprint Cup racing on the new vehicle.

At least I've never heard of censorship helping a cars downforce in a pack of traffic.

The rains came after 11 drivers got on track during the qualifying session, leaving the rulebook to decide where teams would start Sunday's race. That leaves Jeff Burton on the outside pole with Jason Leffler and Tony Raines heading home.

Burton, though, with a strange set of circumstances ended up needing those directions to Bristol Motor Speedway's victory lane.

With 15 laps to go, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, and Denny Hamlin were shaping up for a three-way battle for the lead when Brian Vickers cut a tire on his No. 83 Toyota and slammed the turn 3 wall, bringing out a caution.

Stewart, Hamlin, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. stayed out as the rest of the lead-lap cars -- including Harvick and Burton -- dove to pit road for fresh tires. On the restart with 5 laps to go, Stewart jumped out to a lead before Hamlin caught him and drove past.

If Aerosmith was in town, they'd be belting out "Same Old Song and Dance" right about now.

Carl Edwards took his second Sprint Cup Series victory in a row Sunday afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. His win -- the ninth of the Missouri-driver's career -- at the UAW-Dodge 400 put Edwards into the points lead of the Sprint Cup Series for the first time.

Edwards also won last week's Auto Club 500 in California.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton rounded out the Top-5 in the second race of the weekend at LVMS to set new records for cautions.

Saturday's Nationwide Series event had a track record 13 cautions while Sunday's Sprint Cup event won by Edwards had 11 cautions -- one over the track record.

A few of the cautions saw NASCAR's biggest names involved in some of the day's biggest hits.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 8th-place Jeff Burton.

Driver: Jeff Burton -- South Boston, Virginia
Team: No. 31 Cingular/AT&T Chevrolet
Points: 8th (-491)
2006: 7th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 1 wins, 9 Top-5s, 18 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

Jeff Burton's most newsworthy event of the year didn't even come on the race track.

Over the summer, Burton's sponsor AT&T sued NASCAR for the right to change the brand on the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet from Cingular to AT&T. The issue, which originally arose over a grandfather clause in the contract for Sprint/Nextel to become the title sponsor of the Cup Series, was eventually settled after AT&T agreed to depart the sport after 2008 with the allowance of running the AT&T brand on Burton's car until that point.

For a few races though late in the summer, though, Burton's car was painted bright orange with no sponsors -- an indication of some severe problems NASCAR is having with growing the sport by alienating potential sponsors.

On the track, though, Burton scored his lone victory at the track that he scored his first career one -- at Texas Motor Speedway in April. A thrilling duel with former teammate Matt Kenseth sealed the end of the race that interestingly enough with all of Burton's sponsor troubles saw the No. 31 enter victory lane with a special primary sponsor of Prilosec OTC.

Aside from Texas, Burton's 2007 campaign was nothing other than typical Jeff Burton -- consistent.

Burton made the Chase and likely would have fared much higher in the final standings if he would have been able to skip Talladega and Kansas. Burton finished those events 43rd and 36th, respectively.

Finishes of 18th and 12th coupled with six Top-10s -- four straight to finish the season, nonetheless -- showed Burton had a mildly successful playoff run with plenty to build on for 2008.

The sign of Burton's Childress teammates Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick also making the Chase should be good for the whole RCR outfit in 2008.