Jeff Burton was rated as one of the top choices for the 2001 Winston Cup championship after four straight top-five finishes in the standings. But four finishes of 30th or worse in the first six races put Burton and his No. 99 Roush Racing CITGO Supergard Ford team in a hole from which it never recovered. Burton did score two victories, but he was the only Roush team to visit Victory Lane. In his sixth season driving for Jack Roush he ended up with eight top-five and 16 top-10 finishes and had only one DNF -- but that knocked him down to $4,230,737 in winnings, the first time in three years he'd been below $5 million. Burton reached his nadir of the season in the standings, 38th after four races, and after that started a march back to the front that saw him reach the top-10 for the first time after the 29th race of the season, at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Burton's team had the best point performance in the last quarter of the season, when he scored a victory, five top-five and six top-10 finishes. 2001 was the second straight frustrating season for Burton, who ended the 2000 season third with only some aggravating DNFs and inexplicable shortfalls placing him behind champion Bobby Labonte and the late Dale Earnhardt. 2000 was a career effort in Burton's nine-year Winston Cup tenure. Ironically his first start came in 1993 at New Hampshire, where he led every lap to win in September. It was his fourth straight season in which he finished fifth or better in the points. 2001 seemed like the same refrain as the last four years -- all Burton's Roush team needs to do is eliminate the little problems, and it will be a serious championship contender. Clearly the talent is in place; perhaps all that's needed is some racing luck. 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, beating, among others, his older brother Ward for the crown. Burton's interest in racing began at age 5, watching Ward run karts in South Boston, Va. Eventually he 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 Busch Series. Success followed him there as he posted four wins, 15 top-fives and three poles in five seasons.
