Jeff Burton Winston Cup Driver - Interview

SCR: Over the last couple of years, you've become very active in the safety aspect of this sport. Is safety the biggest issue facing the Winston Cup Series?
Burton: I don't think safety is the biggest issue, but it's certainly an issue that has come to the forefront because of tragedy. Safety has to be approached in one way, and that is it's a never-ending goal. You can't make racing safe enough because there's always going to be something that comes along to make it even safer. So it's a moving target. What we have to do is treat it as a moving target, with the understanding that the target always needs to be moving up. It's a process that will never stop. Safety will never get good enough. You can't fix safety; you can only continue to improve what you have.

SCR: Not only have you taken a vocal approach when it comes to safety, but you've also taken a very hands-on approach as well. What steps have you taken to better understand the subject?
Burton: You can't get in an argument with somebody without knowing the facts. You should never fight a fight without conviction and education. When Ford started having safety seminars, I wanted to know what it was talking about. If you're going to be involved in trying to understand and improve something, you have to learn about it. I made it a point that if I was going to be involved in talking about safety I was going to learn all I could about it. To me, that was the only way I could have been involved in all this talk about safety and be 100-percent sure of what I was talking about. You either have to be 100-percent involved or stay out of the way in whatever it is you're doing. I had to make myself smarter about safety. That's the only way I could honestly talk about it.

SCR: Does NASCAR need to work harder to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to safety?
Burton: I don't put all this on the shoulders of NASCAR because this is a community issue. I will be the first to say that NASCAR has made a tremendous change in philosophy, and I couldn't be prouder it did. I'm one of the first ones to criticize NASCAR, but I will also be the first one to praise it when I think it deserves it. I put my arm around Mike Helton not long ago and told him I really appreciated the work he and NASCAR were doing because they have led the charge to make a commitment to the ongoing process of safety. It's just been a change in mindset.

SCR: You've been a driver who has never forgotten where you came from as far as your short-track roots. How does it feel to know there are guys racing across the country on Friday and Saturday nights that look up to you and listen when you have something to say that could enhance their safety?
Burton: It means a lot to me and I appreciate that. I just want those guys to know that safety is something that shouldn't be taken lightly. We, as Winston Cup drivers, have a tremendous opportunity to lead by example. If you're a guy who's racing on short tracks, you watch Winston Cup racing on Sundays and you read magazines like Stock Car Racing. We need to understand that and help set an example, not just for safety but a lot of issues. That's an awesome task, and it means a lot to me that people look up to me for anything I've done.