'THE MAYOR': Jeff Burton has established himself as a leader at RCR

Jeff Burton has been considered the top political figure in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series garage area for a long time.

It is the same within Richard Childress Racing, where the South Boston native is the veteran driver and considered a leader among his teammates. While he hasn’t amassed as many wins as Kyle Busch or Carl Edwards — the driver who replaced Burton at Roush/Fenway Racing — his consistency and value as a teammate are what are respected the most.

“I’ve always called him ‘The Mayor,’” teammate Clint Bowyer said. “He’s always on top of things — whether it be safety aspects in the racing or whatever else, he’s always in tune with what’s going on and always has good feedback, and is always positive and upbeat about things. He’s a good representative of what we do and he’s just an all-around good guy.”

Burton was at the forefront of the safety issues following the death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001. One of his suggestions, a stronger window net for the drivers, came about after his head bounced through the net during an accident at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The safer barriers at tracks and extra safety elements within the car have come with Burton’s seal of approval.

“He’s been awesome. Jeff obviously does a great job on TV and he’s a good spokesman,” teammate Casey Mears said. “What people see on TV is the way he is here, he’s really able to explain things, has a good grasp of where RCR is — has a really good grasp of where they need to improve and where they’re good.”

One thing that stands out about Mears’ transition — which came after a not-so pleasant season at Hendrick Motorsports where the former open-wheeler did not meet high expectations — is how Burton, who had to make that move before, was able to bring Mears up to speed.

“One of the things that you don’t want to do is you don’t want to give them preconceived notions. I think it’s exceptionally important for Casey to come in and do an assessment without us baiting him,” Burton said. “So one of the things that I try to do is I talk to Casey but I try not to tell him, ‘This is how it is, this is how it should be.’ I want him to take an assessment and come tell us what he thinks, because that’s what’s valuable about having teammates.”

Burton’s other teammates, Kevin Harvick and Bowyer, laud Burton’s approach and his ability to communicate with all the members of RCR. Though Burton says he would enjoy the success that Bowyer and Harvick have had in just the past few years, Burton has had plenty of success at his hometown track on the Sprint Cup schedule.

In 29 starts at the 0.526-mile oval, Burton has one victory — the fall race in 1997. Following the 1998 spring race where Burton finished 32nd, he racked up 11 consecutive top 20 finishes, and in that stretch, eight of those were in the top 10.

“The other thing is that Jeff is very competitive and as teammates, it’s good to have someone that can competitively push you because you kind of become stale,” Harvick said. “We all push ourselves but until you find somebody that makes you push it past the limits, it’s not as competitive in house as it needs to be. In my opinion, there always needs to be a little bit of competition — friendly competition — in house, so that when you’re at tests or at the race tracks, you can go look at their notes. From that standpoint, it’s been really good.”

Burton couldn’t agree more with Harvick, who is an owner/driver in the Nationwide and Camping World Truck series. When you bring those combustible elements into a discussion about where RCR should be going with its Sprint Cup cars, things can get heated, but those are what Burton values the most.

“The great thing about teammates is you get a lot of different opinions — and you want different opinions, you want disagreements,” Burton said. “You don’t want to be disagreeable but you want disagreements. You want to have discussions.”

For a second straight year, the trio of Burton, Bowyer and Harvick are sitting in position to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup final 10-race season. Bowyer is third in points, with Harvick sitting in 12th and Burton just five points behind.

“I think Jeff has definitely helped everything that we’ve done at RCR, I think from top to bottom,” Harvick said. “Definitely gives you somebody who’s going to give you an honest opinion and going to give you an opinion of been there, done that. When I was first starting at RCR, I didn’t really have that and then, once Jeff came along and gave you somebody that has been a part of the sport for a long time, you can kind of reference on a lot of different things.”