“They would use that against us”: Jeff Burton recalls running in NASCAR without a sponsorship

In 2003, Jeff Burton concluded the NASCAR season in 12th place in the points standings. However, the following year, his 12th in the NASCAR Cup Series, Burton's team, Roush Racing, struggled to secure sufficient sponsorship to maintain his #99 Ford for the full 36-race schedule. Reflecting on this period, Jeff Burton recently shared how demoralizing it was to compete in a car devoid of sponsor logos.

RFK Racing released a video where Burton openly discussed the challenges of that season:

"We didn't race like we didn't have a sponsor. We didn't do anything different. It was hard to go to racetracks with a white car or a black car with nothing on it. It was humiliating. And it was hard to get people to want to work on the team. All the other car owners took advantage of that, 'Hey, they're the other one; that team's going out of business; they don't have a sponsor or sh*t. They would use that against us and then,'"he said [at 0:20].

Burton also noted how the difficulties with sponsorship inadvertently created opportunities for Carl Edwards, explaining:

"At the same time, we weren't running well. At the same time, Carl Edwards was here. And so I had an opportunity to go drive a Richard. Not just try, but help him kind of rebuild his program. And... If I left Carl Edwards is in there," Burton added.

Back then, only a few sponsors were ready to put money on Jeff Burton's car for a few races, including Turner Network Television, which supported Jeff Burton during the February 15 Daytona 500 and the Twin 125s on February 12 at Daytona International Speedway.

Burton mentioned that at least one other four-or-five-race sponsorship package had been secured. However, he entered the 2004 season without a primary sponsor, often relying on support from his personal sponsor, SKF. Amidst this backdrop, rumors started circulating about Burton's potential departure from Roush Racing.

Initially, Burton dismissed these rumors but ultimately left the Roush team mid-season after an eight-and-a-half-year tenure, signing a three-year contract with Richard Childress Racing.

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Jeff Burton buried a time capsule at Daytona scheduled to be opened in 2030

In 2010, during the repaving of Daytona International Raceway—a project expedited by a pothole incident during the Daytona 500—Jeff Burton and Joie Chitwood seized the opportunity to bury a time capsule at the finish line. The capsule contained 2010 race tickets, diecast models of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s #3 car and Burton's #31 car, newspapers, and a Blackberry phone.

As they buried the capsule, Chitwood remarked:

"We also have a flash drive of all of the documents. Whether it's the media advisory we did, or the press releases. And so to think that this will even be readable in 20 years in terms of the technology back then. I don't even know if Microsoft will be in business, who knows? But this will be all the documents that we produced as it relates to the construction. Who knows in 20 years if we'll even be able to open it and read it."