Thursday, Oct. 18, 2001 | 4:02 a.m.
For many Winston Cup drivers and teams, the season Jeff Burton has put together would be a high-water mark.
He won the Coca-Cola 600, is 10th in the Winston Cup championship race and has earned more than $3 million.
For Burton, though, frustrating only begins to describe it. This was the year when a series championship seemed reachable.
"We have several problems," Burton said. "The cars don't handle the way they need to, they don't make the horsepower they need to make, we don't have the downforce we need, we haven't got the right shocks on them, we haven't got the right springs on them and the drivers aren't driving them the way they need to."
Burton isn't complaining. But he's wondering what has happened to a team that in the last four seasons has finished fourth and fifth twice before a career-best third last year in the points.
He's effusive in his praise of the dedication of his team and all members of the Roush Racing family, which has endured a season of consistently disappointing results. Burton is the only one of four Roush drivers in the top 10 heading into Sunday's EA Sports 500 in Talladega, Ala.
"When no one is running well, there's a tendency to think, 'Gosh, we're really doing something wrong,"' he said. "'Will we ever be able to get to the place where we need to be?'
"There's less optimism."
Teammate Mark Martin, like Burton a perennial championship contender, is an uncharacteristic 11th in points and could wind up winless for only the second time in the last 13 seasons.
Burton and Martin have grown weary of trying to pinpoint the trouble.
"I can't tell you what the fix is going to be because if we knew what the fix was, we certainly would have already fixed it," Martin said.
Roush thinks many things have contributed to the declining results, not the least of which is an increased attention to safety that came about after Dale Earnhardt was killed in the season-opening Daytona 500.
"It's caused some of the drivers who had felt a measure of comfort or invincibility in what they're doing to really consider how dangerous their work was and it gave them pause," Roush said.
The increased focus on safety translated into a dilution of effort on making the cars better, Roush said, calling 2001 "a year of pause, a year of introspection, of stepping back and thinking about what was going on and looking at what we're doing, the way we're doing it and questioning many things that under a normal scenario would not have been questioned."
Plus, he and Burton said, many teams would gladly change places.
Meanwhile, Burton is gratified by the way his team has responded.
"Our morale hasn't changed, as silly as that sounds," he said. "Through struggling, we've learned a lot about ourselves as a team, and what we've learned has been good.
"I'm tickled to death with the attitude, the morale, the continued commitment to our program. It's unreal."
Because of the struggles, though, Burton's name has been bandied about frequently in the rumor mill. Two popular scenarios have him going to Richard Childress Racing or replacing the fired Jeremy Mayfield in one of Roger Penske's cars.
Burton laughs, though he admits there have been calls.
"You know, when you get a call from certain people in the sport, you return that call out of respect," he said. "Any conversation I've ever had with any car owner that has called me, I've always told him, 'First things first. I'm not available. I appreciate your interest in me. It's an honor that you called me. I appreciate it, but I love where I work."'
Now, though, he wants to again be considered a top contender for the Winston Cup championship and back up his expectations on the track.
"You strive to be considered one of the best teams in the sport," he said, smiling. "That's what you've worked your whole life for. And when you get that, if you don't want it, you're in the wrong deal."
Even in adversity, Burton can see that.
Last week, in Martinsville, Va., Burton was running practice laps when his car hit an oil spill and then the wall, causing him to go to his backup Ford.
Starting 41st, he worked his way steadily forward, finishing fifth in a car he hadn't run one lap in before the green flag flew.
"That's a microcosm of what our team is all about, and what our year has been like," he said.
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