A plug for underdog Jeff Burton

By DAVID GREEN

From 1997 through 2000, Jeff Burton was looking like the Next Big Thing in Winston Cup Series racing. In his second through fifth seasons with Roush Racing, Burton scored his first 15 career victories --six of them in 1999, his best season to date -- and finished fourth, fifth, fifth and third in driver points.

In 2001, though, things began to go sour for Burton in the Roush organization. He won only twice and slumped to 10th in driver standings. For the next 2-1/2 seasons, Burton was winless, and he switched to Richard Childress Racing after 18 races in the 2004 campaign. He has been with Childress ever since.

And now, in the Chase for the third straight year, Burton is within striking distance of Jimmie Johnson, the leader at the halfway point of the 10-race, championship-determining segment of the season.

Burton perhaps became better known as an activist than a racer, as he was one of the higher-profile questioners about safety in NASCAR as first Adam Petty, then Kenny Irwin Jr., then Tony Roper, and finally Dale Earnhardt were killed in crashes in NASCAR's three national touring series.

In all likelihood, it was Burton who was the target of Earnhardt's famous pronouncement on the subject at Richmond International Raceway in the fall of 2000, when he suggested that drivers who were complaining about safety ought to tie kerosene-soaked rags around their ankles, "to keep the bugs from crawling up their legs and biting their candy asses."

The blustering remark became tragically ironic about five months later.

Safety-consciousness isn't the only way in which Burton is the antithesis of what Earnhardt was. He's the consummate gentleman racer, one of a select few who, in my recollection, have never resorted to knocking a competitor out of the way in order to pass them.

Many fans see that as a weakness in a driver, and point to Burton's career total of 21 wins in comparison to the more ruthlessly aggressive Jeff Gordon, who has 81 victories in a roughly similar career span, along with four Cup Series championship titles.

I see it as an attribute, and as one good reason to cheer for Burton in the final five races of this championship drive.

Johnson is bidding for a third consecutive championship, a feat achieved only once (in 1976-77-78 by Cale Yarborough). He's 69 points ahead of Burton. Greg Biffle is third, 17 points behind Burton, and Carl Edwards is fourth, 168 points behind Johnson. It's safe to assume Johnson, Biffle -- who won the first two races of this year's Chase -- and Edwards, making headlines on and off the track the past week, will get more than their share of media and fan attention.

Meanwhile, here's a plug for articulate nice guy Jeff Burton, my personal favorite to win the 2008 Cup.