Jeff Burton

Burton ended the 2000 season third with only some aggravating DNFs and inexplicable shortfalls placing him behind champion Bobby Labonte and revitalized Dale Earnhardt. Jeff Burton and crew chief Frank Stoddard fashioned a classy record of 22 top-10s and 15 top-5s, with four victories and winnings of $5,959,439.

2000 was a career effort in Jeff Burton's eight-year Winston Cup tenure. Ironically his first start came in 1993 at New Hampshire, where he led every lap to win in September. It was his fourth straight season in which he finished fifth or better in the points.

He won a Winston "No Bull 5" race at Las Vegas and also scored in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona and at Phoenix. His best overall season followed his top year for victories, 1999 -- when he won six times -- including two No Bull 5 bonuses.

In 1994, Jeff Burton ran the full season for the established Stavola Brothers Racing team. He qualified for all but one race that year and won a hotly contested battle for the 1994 MAXX Rookie of the Year title, beating, among others, his older brother Ward for the crown.

Burton's interest in racing began at age 5, watching Ward run karts in South Boston, Va. Eventually he began racing and won the state kart championship twice before venturing into stock car racing.

He recorded 21 NASCAR Weekly Racing Series wins prior to moving up to the Busch Series. There as he posted four wins, 15 top-5s and three poles over five seasons.