Can the Car of Tomorrow change Jeff Burton’s fortunes at New Hampshire International Speedway?

Jeff Bourton

Jeff Burton takes a lap in the car of tomorrow during testing in May.

He certainly hopes so.

Burton, who made his first Nextel Cup Series start at the track in July 1993, holds the track record with four Cup wins, including one where he led all 300 laps of the race. But his most recent win came in the 2000 season and in the 12 races since, he’s led just 101 of the 3,515 laps run.

Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 300 marks the debut of NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow at the flat track in Loudon, N.H. Burton has had mixed results with the COT on tracks 1-mile or less this season – one top-five and three top-10 finishes in five races.

“There’s a lot of work going into the Car of Tomorrow by a lot of different people trying to become more successful, and we’re one of them,” said Burton, who drives the No. 31 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing and sits fourth in points.

“We haven’t run as well as we need to in the Car of Tomorrow (races) so far, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t. That just means we’ve got to figure it out, and we’re working a lot between now and New Hampshire and, hopefully, we’ll be a lot smarter going to New Hampshire than we are right now.”

It’s not like Burton hasn’t run well at New Hampshire recently. He has three straight top-10 finishes at the track and RCR teammate Kevin Harvick won last fall’s race, so the organization still has what it takes to win there.

“I certainly have high hopes going there. I’m real comfortable with the racetrack, but at the same time, we’ve haven’t won a race there in years and we haven’t had the success that we need to have there,” Burton said.

“We worked pretty hard at the Richmond (COT) test and ended up having one of the best two or three cars out there. It was unfortunate that we had our engine let go during the Richmond race earlier this year because our car was real fast.

“We struggled a little bit at Phoenix but ended up leaving there with a decent finish. So, I’m going into this weekend as being optimistic.”

New Hampshire, whether using the Car of Tomorrow or not, always presents challenges, Burton said.

“The turns are so flat and the groove is half-a-lane off the bottom. The track has continued to gain grip through the years,” he said. “It used to be real easy to spin the tires and we didn’t have any rear grip but today it is actually pretty good with rear grip.

“Getting the car to turn is your biggest battle in New Hampshire where it used to be getting the rear wheels to hook up. The Car of Tomorrow has changed things for sure.”

Sunday’s race also signals the start of the final 10 races that will be used to set the field for the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

Right now, Burton and Harvick appear solidly locked into the Chase and teammate Clint Bowyer is fighting to remain in the top 12 as well.

“Obviously as the races get closer to two or three to go before the last 10, we’ve got a tremendous amount of emphasis put on it. However, we can’t forget that they pay the same amount of points for the third race of the year as they do for the 25th race of the year,” Burton said.