Homestead: Ford - Jeff Burton press conference

JEFF BURTON - No. 99 Citgo Taurus (Finished 3rd)

ON THE SEASON. "I realized we weren't doing as well as we needed to do and we're gonna be a team that's about winning races and winning championships. That's what we're gonna be about. We knocked another top five off today and since Paul's come on board, we've had two top fives and a lot of top 10s and I think this team is headed in the right direction, I really believe that. I'm really disappointed, probably more so now than I was when the race ended. For us not to win is really very disappointing this year. We didn't put ourselves in position enough to win and that's what you have to do, you have to be fast enough. We were fast enough today to win, but we put on four rather than two because that was the right thing for us to do. The Citgo car was much better on four than it was on two. Our car didn't like two tires for whatever reason and that made us put on four and put us in a position not to win."

WHAT ABOUT TONY. "I think Tony is a racer. Tony's really, really, really a great racer. A lot of time has been spent this year talking about Tony's negatives and certainly the last two weeks there's been a tremendous amount of conversation about Tony being able to uphold his responsibility as a champion. I think Tony will step it up. I think Tony has respect for this sport. I think he has respect for what it is he does for a living and Tony and his team have done a great job. Since that team was formed, they have done a great job. They have been a competitive team since they started and congratulations to them. They are the deserving champions, there's no doubt about it. They were the fastest and most consistent throughout the year. I don't know if Tony, a month from now, is gonna be happy he won the championship or not. I think Tony would just as soon take the trophy tonight, go have a party and that would be it, but that's not the way it's gonna work for him. I think Tony's gonna step it up and I think he'll do a great job representing our sport as the champion, I really do. I think a lot of people don't think so, but I think he'll step it up."

HOW HARD WAS IT TO PASS TODAY? "The apron made it interesting, that's for sure. My car was better not on the apron at one end and good on the other. The one thing the apron did allow was for some side by side racing. When I got my car good, when people went to the apron I could go around them on the outside, so we had some side by side racing in the corner. The craziest thing is to run down by the grass. That's just ridiculous. Some people did it and had great success doing it. I got behind Mark and he was just hauling ass down there in the grass. I tried it, but I couldn't do it. This is a neat race track. This really is a neat race track. If we can keep it cleaned off and keep the rubber cleaned off, I think we can put on great races. I thought today was a great race. I think this is one of the most fun race tracks we go to."

-ford-