Jeff Burton

Jeff Burton: We lost three very young, very talented drivers in a really short time and that had a lot of influence, too. Certainly Dale's death was a huge smack in the face to everybody, but all those deaths in such a short period of time was awful. It forced people to look at it and say, 'Hey, this isn't a coincidence. There's something going on.'

Jeff Burton: When I came into the sport, rookies didn't drive good race cars. You drove junk. Rookies don't step in driving junk anymore. They step in driving top cars because there is no junk. They step in driving really, really good stuff.

Jeff Burton: Racing is safer today than it was five years ago, but we didn't know it. People ask me, 'Do you feel safer today in a race car than you did five years ago?' No, I don't. I felt safe five years ago. I thought we were doing all we could do. I didn't know we could do more.

Jeff Burton: Dale Jarrett's chance to make the Chase was greatly harmed by a guy who was pretty much in the Chase, who just ran over him.

Jeff Burton: Bristol is such a unique place to race, with the track being surrounded by fans and the track banked at 36 degrees, it's not matched by any other track.

Jeff Burton: The hardest thing that I've had to deal with is the understanding that I can't do everything. I just don't think that the driver can run the team anymore. I think he needs to be able to concentrate on driving.?The competition level is so big now, I need to focus on racing, not on the logistics part of it.

Jeff Burton: I think the responsibility message has been more thorough because they are involved in our sport than if they weren't involved in our sport. And if you think about it, someone was held accountable maybe to a higher degree because they are involved in the marketing of alcohol.