Burton: Dale Jr made mistake but Jr "not a constant problem''

 

Jeff Burton said Friday morning that Dale Earnhardt Jr. made a mistake in the crash that collected a number of drivers in the Daytona 500 but, unlike many fans critical of Earnhardt's driving, Burton says that Earnhardt is "not a constant problem.''

 

Here's what Burton said about Dale Jr and the incident:

 

"He just misjudged it. He just made a mistake,'' Burton said of Earnhardt. "He got blocked, and he was trying to get back in line. It happened so quickly. On TV, it's like, well, that was the deal ... I wouldn't have done that if I was driving the car but you've got to understand in real life behind the wheel those things happen at a really high rate. It was a wreck that was avoidable, but it wasn't an intentional wreck.

 

Q: What does that say when some Junior fans have spoken up against him in this sitatuion?

 

BURTON: "We all make mistakes. There's not a driver in this garage that hasn't caused a wreck and hasn't been in a wreck that they were responsible for. If anybody thinks that there's any driver in here that's immune to that, is wrong. We are people. We make mistakes. We are trying exceptionally hard to succeed in the sport. When you put a lot of effort, a lot of desire and a lot of dedicaiton, you're going to have accidents.

 

"It's not like Junior is a constant problem. It's not like Junior causes a bunch of wrecks. It's not like he doens't have respect. He's one of the most respectful drivers out there. He and I had an incident in the 500, I was upset about it, he and I had a great conversation because I respect him, he respects me. Junior has a lot of respect for the history of the sport, has a lot of respect for the other drivers but he's going to make mistakes. Same way Jimmie Johnson is. Same way Tony Stewart is. Same way I am. We make mistakes. The question is how many do you make, and Junior doesn't make a lot of them.''

 

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Here's Robin Pemberton, NASCAR VP of Competition on the issue of if the Daytona 500 should be run to completion: "That's fine if we dind't have other obligations further on down the road. Teams had to start traveling out here Monday evening or Tuesday at some time. it is a great race. There's a lot of prestige that goes along with it but it is just one of our many, many races that we conduct during the season and all of our races basically have the same guidelines whether its rain-shortened and what we try to do for the fans and out of respect for the people who are sitting in the stands.

 

Q: There's no thinking then to try to have for the 500 or a couple of races mandates that you go the full distance regardless: "

 

PEMBERTON: "Our rules when it comes to that have been fairly clear and fairly basic over the years. When we get to halfway, it's over with it. For instance,  you can look at what we went through with Michigan a couple of summers ago. What if we had gotten 100 laps at Michigan and then actually sat there for three more days to get the race in? Where do you draw the line? I think everybody knows going in what we're faced with and understands.  When you look at the odds, only four of those races out of the last 51 being rain-shortened, I think the odds were stacked against us that it was going to happen eventually.''

 

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Jeff Burton will appear on an episode of "General Hospital'' on March 18. In the scene with Burton, he's at a bar. At one point he's reading a magazine and if you look closely, you might see his script.

 

"I just put my lines in the magazine,'' Burton said.

 

Told he was cheating, Burton said: "That's not cheating. There's  no rules against that. That's improvising. It worked.''

 

 

 

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