Inconsistency continues to torment Jeff Burton

By KEVIN KELLY

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 8, 2000

Jeff Burton, and everybody else, still are waiting.

The driver of the No. 99 Ford has been considered a Winston Cup championship contender since 1997, when he won three races and finished fourth in the point standings.

But inconsistent performances have relegated Burton to consecutive fifth-place finishes in the standings and are hampering his run at a title this season.

"Really, we have never contended the whole year for the championship, and we need to do that," said Burton, who won six races last season. "We need to go through that as a team, and that's what we're looking to do. We can do it. I'm not saying we're going to do it, but we are a legitimate contender for the championship, and that's the position we wanted to be in."

The South Boston, Va., native enters the Kmart 400 on Sunday at Michigan Speedway with eight top-10 finishes, including one victory. He is sixth in the point standings despite three finishes of 30th or worse.

"We didn't set our goal at the beginning of the year to go win more races than we did last year," said Burton, who has finished in the top five in four of his past five races at Michigan. "Our goal was to truly contend for the championship, and we're meeting that goal right now."

PASSED (OVER): Jeff Gordon is assured he won't go winless on the track this season, but the three-time Winston Cup champion has been shut out on the Internet.

The Chevrolet that Gordon drove to victory in the 1996 DieHard 500 at Talladega Superspeedway and the 1997 Busch Clash at Daytona International Speedway was put up for auction at www.sothebys.amazon.com May 24 with a minimum $40,000 bid.

But when the auction ended at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, not one bid had been placed.

"I really am surprised," said Scottie Lindsay, director of the Hendrick Marrow Program, which was to receive the proceeds. "I don't know if the $40,000 starting bid was just a little too much and scared people off. I do know it's worth a lot more than that."

The program is named after Gordon's car owner, Rick Hendrick, who had leukemia. Lindsay said it may try again to auction the car.

DAYTONA TESTING: Wally Dallenbach was the lone Winston Cup driver to test his car this week at Daytona.

The driver of the No. 75 Ford recorded a top lap of 183.299 mph Tuesday.

Winston Cup testing continues next week when Dale Jarrett, who won the Pepsi 400 last year and the Daytona 500 in February, will be one of three drivers at the 2.5-mile track Tuesday and Wednesday.

Ricky Rudd, Jarrett's teammate at Robert Yates Racing, and Jerry Nadeau also are scheduled to be part of the night session, which starts at 3 and ends at 11 both days. Grandstands will be open to the public.

ENGINE SWITCH: Robbie Buhl, tied for second with Scott Goodyear in the Indy Racing point standings, will use a new race engine in the Casino Magic 500 on Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway.

The Dreyer & Reinbold team is switching from an Oldsmobile to an Infiniti.

This won't be the first time Buhl has raced an Infiniti engine. Last year he ran two races with it and finished 20th at Walt Disney World Speedway and third at Phoenix International Raceway.

CREW MEMBER REMEMBERED: All five Winston Cup cars owned and operated by Roush Racing will display a special decal this weekend in memory of Dave Rush, the 48-year-old crew member for Chad Little's team killed Saturday when two 20-foot boats collided on Lake Norman in North Carolina.

The accident is being investigated.

Rush had been with Roush Racing for four years. He served as a fabricator and a gas catch can man on race days.

"Dave was a highly skilled fabricator, and he was a major reason why we feel we have one of the best superspeedway programs," crew chief Jeff Hammond said. "This next week will be difficult."

-- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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