Event/Date: Checker O’Ford 400 – Nov. 16, 2008

Location: Homestead-Miami Speedway – Homestead, Fla.

This Week’s AT&T Chevrolet at Homestead-Miami Speedway … Jeff Burton will race Chassis No. 255 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Cup Series stable. Built new for 2008, this is the same AT&T Chevrolet Burton drove to an 11th-place finish at Michigan in August. The veteran driver finished 21st with this car at Pocono in August where a late-race pit road penalty cost him what looked to have the makings of a top-five finish. Most recently, the 2008 Bank of America 500 winner piloted this chassis to a seventh-place finish at Kansas and to a 13th-place effort at Texas two weeks ago.

Homestead Facts … In nine starts at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Burton boasts three top-five and four top-10 finishes. Although he has yet to capture a Cup Series victory at the Sunshine State facility, the South Boston, Va., native has two Nationwide Series checkered flags on his Homestead resume (1998 and 2007). The 21-time Cup Series race winner has been running at the end of all nine events held at HMS and has completed 98.2 percent of the laps contested.

Double Down in Homestead … In addition to his driving duties behind the wheel of the No. 31 AT&T Chevrolet Impala SS, Burton, a 27-time race winner in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, will drive RCR’s No. 21 Prilosec OTC Wal-Mart Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS in this weekend’s Ford 300 at HMS. Live coverage of the season finale will take the green flag Sat., Nov. 15 at 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The race will be televised live on ESPN2 and broadcast worldwide on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying will be televised live on SPEED the same day at 11:30 a.m. EST. MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio will provide qualifying updates live.

Last Time Around … A brush with the outside retaining wall, constant fights for the Lucky Dog award and clutch problems were three acts in the high-speed drama for Burton and Company during the last season’s 400-mile feature. The problems, however, were just temporary hitches in the giddy-up for Burton’s AT&T Chevy and the veteran driver went on to close out the 2007 NASCAR Cup Series season by posting an eighth-place finish. The solid effort afforded Burton a seat at the banquet in New York City closing out NASCAR’s 59th season eighth in the point standings.

Chase Recap … In the first nine Chase events, Burton has yet to finish worse than 18th. He didn’t finish outside the top nine in the first five races but suffered a string of misfortunes over the next three with consecutive finishes outside the top 10. Last weekend in Phoenix, Burton and the AT&T Racing team returned to top-10 form by earning a ninth-place effort. Burton has a respectable 9.2 finishing average over the opening nine races in the Chase for the NASCAR Cup. He has finished on the lead lap in seven of the nine races, completing all but two of the 2,967 laps contested.

One Trophy Missing from the Shelf … Homestead has been a bit of an Achilles Heel for RCR and is one of the few race tracks where team owner Richard Childress hasn’t earned a Cup Series victory. As a company, RCR’s best finish at HMS came in 2003 when Harvick finished second. In 26 starts, RCR has two top-five and 11 top-10 finishes at the mile-and-a-half, progressively-banked oval with drivers Dave Blaney, Clint Bowyer, Burton, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Green, Harvick and Mike Skinner. Auto Club Speedway, Kansas Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway are the other tracks on the current schedule where RCR has yet to visit Victory Lane.

RCR Championship Update … While Burton finished ninth last weekend, the driver of the No. 31 AT&T Chevy maintained fourth in points and still leads the charge for RCR’s three-team Cup Series effort. He is 66 points behind Greg Biffle in third and 128 back from Carl Edwards in second. Jimmie Johnson holds a 269-point advantage over Burton heading into Round 10 of the Chase for the Cup. Harvick finished seventh in Phoenix and jumped from seventh to fifth in the standings while fellow stable mate Bowyer upheld his sixth-place spot by virtue of his 12th-place effort last weekend. Burton leads Harvick by 59 points and is 63 forward of Bowyer heading into this weekend’s stop at HMS.

The Collective RCR … In 35 races this season, RCR-prepared Cup Series entries have notched three wins (Burton – Bristol1 and Charlotte2, Bowyer – Richmond1), 19 top-five and 52 top-10 finishes. The Welcome, N.C., -based race team has completed 31,339 laps in 2008 with five different drivers including Bowyer, Burton, Harvick, Ken Schrader and Mike Wallace. Meanwhile, RCR teams have logged 42,669 miles of competition this season and have been on top of the leaderboard for 519 laps. Combined, all four RCR teams have earned just shy of $15 million in purse money this season.

Meet the Press … Burton will be available inside the speedway’s infield media center Fri., Nov. 14 at 10 a.m.

Catch the Action … Flag-to-flag coverage of the Ford 400 from Homestead-Miami Speedway will be televised live Sun., Nov. 16 beginning at 3 p.m. EST on ABC and will be broadcast worldwide on MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the final NASCAR Cup Series event on the 2008 schedule will take the green flag at 3 p.m. EST Fri., Nov. 14 and will be telecast live on ESPN2. MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio will broadcast qualifying updates live.

You are obviously racing for wins at this point. How important is it to finish as high up in the point standings as possible?
“I think it’s a big deal. Anytime you’re competing, you want to finish as high as possible. There’s a tremendous amount of money involved that helps the team to be able to do the things it needs to do to be the best they can possibly be. There’s also a tremendous amount of pride involved. Finishing second is a lot better than finishing fifth and finishing fifth is a lot better than finishing ninth.”

Has this been a successful year for you given where you are in the points right now?
“The year is not over yet so I can’t tell you how successful of a year it is. I can tell you that I’m not disappointed in the year. I’m disappointed about some things that happened in the year but I’m not disappointed at this point in what we’ve been able to do. Clearly, winning the championship would mean it’s a whole lot more successful and finishing third means it’s a whole lot more successful than finishing ninth. I know we’re all trying to finish out the year there is one race left and anything can happen. So, I can’t tell you how successful it is because it’s not over yet. As long as we’re putting in the effort and have the right dedication, then the results will show if we’ve been successful or not.”

Is it hard to find a good line around a track with the progressive banking, such as Homestead-Miami Speedway?
“I think you definitely have to hunt for the best line. As a driver you have to be open to trying different lines so you can find which line works best for your car. The problem lies when you are trying to get your car set up during practice. You question yourself as to what line you want to run. It’s really easy to set your car up for one line then move somewhere else and find out that it doesn’t work as well. You really have to be committed to where you want to run and stay there.”