Jeff Burton's interest in racing began at age five, watching his older brother Ward run karts in South Boston, Va. Eventually, Jeff began racing and won the state kart championship twice before venturing into stock car racing.
He recorded 21 NASCAR Weekly Racing Series wins prior to moving up to the Nationwide Series. Success followed him there as he posted four wins, 15 top-fives and three poles in five seasons before moving up to NASCAR's top divison.
In 1994, Burton ran the full season for the established Stavola Brothers Racing team. He qualified for all but one race that year and won a hotly contested battle for the 1994 MAXX Rookie of the Year title.
Burton garnered four consecutive top-five finishes in the standings from 1997-2000. The 2000 season has been Burton's high point, thus far. He finished third in points, with 15 top-five finishes.
But the next year, four finishes of 30th or worse in the first six races of 2001 put Burton and his No. 99 Roush Racing CITGO Supergard Ford team in a hole from which it really didn't recover.
In 2002, despite a year of unprecedented success for Roush Racing, Burton shared in very little of that success. For the first time since 1997, Burton was shut out of Victory Lane. He finished 12th in the Cup standings, his worst finish since he was 13th in 1996.
Burton moved to Richard Childress Racing in 2004, when they signed him to a multi-year agreement to drive its No. 30 America Online Chevrolet. Burton recorded a 12th-place finish in his debut with RCR at Michigan in August 2004. He was moved to the team's No. 31 Cingular Wireless team beginning with the 2005 season.
In both 2006 and 2007, Burton finished the seasons seventh in the points. In 2006, Burton won four poles. Continuing to race for Richard Childress Racing in 2007, Burton added one win, nine top-fives, and 18 top-10s to his Cup series career statistics.
To conclude the 2007 Nationwide Series season, Burton raced only 19 of the 35 events and finished 15th in final points. This was remarkably his best finish in the NASCAR Nationwide season since 1993, when he finished the season in 14th place.
Burton's sixth-place finish in the final 2008 Cup standings was his best finish to date with Richard Childress Racing, but it wasn't quite what he was looking for.
After leading the standings early in the season, running as high as second mid-way through and holding the second spot in the Chase after winning his second race of the season in October at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Burton had hoped for a better end result.
He entered the season finale fourth in the standings, but a loose race car and contact with the No. 78 relegated Burton to a 40th-place finish in the race and sixth in the standings.
With the season finale in Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2008, Burton and sponsor AT&T ended their relationship. In his final year representing AT&T, Burton came away with two victories, seven top fives and 18 top 10s. Consistency throughout the season helped him make the third Chase of his career. He only finished outside the top 20 three times in the first 26 races of the season.
Burton and his CAT Racing team closed the curtain on the 2009 season 17th in the overall championship point standings on the strength of five top-five, 10 top-10 and 16 top-15 finishes. He went winless for the first time since his first full-time season with RCR Racing in 2005.
Burton has hope for the 2010 season after partnering with crew chief Todd Berrier for the last four races of the 2009 season. The team posted four top-nine finishes in the final four races, including two consecutive second-place efforts in the last two events.
