Burton never too old to chase a championship

JEFF BURTONBetter with age

CONCORD, N.C. - Jeff Burton failed to win a championship when he was anointed NASCAR's next big star, the guy everyone thought would challenge for multiple titles.

He couldn't win a crown years later, when, after years of mediocrity, he suddenly found himself back in the mix.

Winning the Bank of America 500 Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway rocketed Burton onto Jimmie Johnson's bumper with five races to go to decide the championship, and Burton is convinced he's as capable of winning a title now as he was when he was a young hotshot.

"No one's ever proven to me why you can't do at 41 what you could do at 23," Burton said. "We're lucky to be in a sport that you can be successful in your 40s. You can convince yourself you're too old to do it. Trust me, a lot of people will try to convince you you're too old to do it.

"But with age comes a lot of advantages, too. And we'll try to take those advantages every chance we get."

Burton's peak started 11 years ago, when he started a string of five multiple-win seasons. In that period, he notched 17 victories and 102 top-10 finishes while slowly moving up in the standings.

He finished fifth in the standings twice, including his six-win season in 1999. He'd moved up to third in the final points the next season, and went into 2001 as the prohibitive favorite to win his first Cup title.

But Dale Earnhardt died on the final lap of the season-opening Daytona 500 that year, and many people believed it adversely affected the safety-conscious Burton. He became a proponent of industrywide improvements, and for the next several years became more known for his stances on safety than his on-track performance.

The wins dried up - Burton didn't reach Victory Lane from 2002 through 2005 - and he left longtime car owner Jack Roush for a fresh start with slumping Richard Childress Racing.

Like Burton, RCR had fallen off following Earnhardt's death, and Childress needed new help to revitalize the program. Many told the car owner he was crazy to hire an aging driver who had failed to meet his potential and presumably lost his edge.

Childress didn't balk.

"Someone asked me a while ago about age, why I pick drivers - not in their golden years, but in their good years, as I call 'em," Childress said. "But Dale Earnhardt in 2000, we finished second [in the standings]. I think he was 49. We were going to win the championship the following year.

"So age, like Jeff said, is only in your mind. If you take care of your body like Jeff does physically, your mind will be good."