COLUMN: Burton fights the good fight

            CONCORD - Jeff Burton has probably gotten enough credit for being the driving talent that he is. He's been praised for being articulate, for having a level head and cool hands and for being cooperative, but he hasn't been praised enough for just being good.

            The Bank of America was the 21^st victory for the 41-year-old Burton, and in a world dominated by young drivers, Burton often plays the lead these days in that long-running play "The Veterans Fight Back." It has its funny moments, but it ends badly. On balance, since it was rewritten in the 1990s, it's probably more tragedy than comedy.

            It's a role played most famously in recent years by Mark Martin, but Martin's not always available these days, so Burton's been getting the nod most of the time this year. Dale Jarrett played it similarly. Sterling Marlin was a crowd-pleaser who played it mostly for laughs. Dale Earnhardt and Harry Gant made the show popular.

            NASCAR always has a gentleman who stands above the crowd. Gentleman Ned. Ned's son. The cheerful Martin. And the forthright Burton.

"I was prepared to do what I had to do to win the race and drive as hard as I could drive," said Burton after winning for the second time this year and moving into second place in the Chase. "But I'm not prepared to lay a fender to somebody and knock him out to win the race.

"By the way, doing that means that they probably won't do that to you, too. So, you know, it was a two-way street. I've won plenty of races because I had that consideration returned to me."

            Like most veteran drivers, Burton offered a staunch defense of veteran drivers.

"No one's ever proven to me why you can't do at 41 what you could do at 23," he said. "If you convince yourself you can't, then you can't.

"We're lucky to be in a sport that you can be successful in your 40s. You know, you can convince yourself you're too old to do it. Trust me, a lot of people will try to convince you you're too old to do it."

            The facts suggest that age does make a difference, but Burton is proof that it doesn't have to.

"With age comes a lot of advantages, too," he said, "and we'll try to take those advantages every chance we get."

            You can reach Monte Dutton at mdutton@gastongazette.com.