Jeff Burton Out at RCR After 2013; Newman, Dillon May Replace Him

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Jeff Burton will not return to RCR next season (Google Images)

Another major domino has fallen this silly season and made the 2014 season that much clearer. NASCAR veteran, and longtime fan favorite, Jeff Burton announced Wednesday afternoon that he will not return to Richard Childress Racing after eight seasons together. This has lead many to speculate, not only as to who will replace the 46-year-old racer, but also about what his new plans might be. The leading candidates for the open seat are Ryan Newman and Childress' grandson Austin Dillon.

Burton and his owner held a teleconference today and explained that the South Boston, Va. driver's contract ran through the 2014 season, and once that deal ran out, Burton would run a partial schedule beginning with the 2015 season. But when there was no funding available to make that happen, the duo decided to expedite the process by a year.

"There has been a lot of rumors and speculation over the last several months concerning my time at RCR," Burton said Wednesday. "This is not necessarily the best thing in the world for me, but my wife and I have talked a lot about it. We've been in a lot of situations where we had no idea what was going to happen next, and every time we ended up in a better situation. I'm an optimistic person and I'm going to work to make this a better situation as well."



Burton has driven for Caterpillar since 2009 (Google Images)

Burton went on to say that the financial state of Childress Racing is what prompted the move. With limited funding for next year, it would not have been feasible for RCR to run the majority of Burton's schedule out of his own pocket.

"I had gone to Richard a while ago and told him at the end of 2014, I would step back and not run a full schedule anymore,." said Burton. We're just accelerating that a year early, to give RCR an opportunity to continue to move that team forward and put the funding in place with a really good driver that can go out and be successful."

"We have been working hard to try and get all the funding in place to have four Sprint Cup teams in 2014," said Childress. "With the date on the calendar getting closer to 2014, we just couldn't run partially funded teams next year. Knowing what Jeff's plans were in 2015, he and I worked out an agreement for him to step out of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet after this season."

Sources had Burton moving to either Swan Racing's No. 30 car or one of the two rides at Tommy Baldwin Racing next year. Other rumors have him jumping to the broadcast booth to join NBC Sports when they begin live race broadcasts in 2015. But contrary to these reports, Burton said that he has not spoken to any teams and that he has no concrete plans in place for 2014.

Burton's most recent win was at Charlotte in 2008
(Google Images)

"This is a scary time. It's also an exciting time. It's a little but of both," said Burton of finding a ride for next year. "The one thing I know is I want to be involved in the sport. I like the people. I like the camaraderie. I like the competition. I like the atmosphere. I'm comfortable at a racetrack, and I want to stay involved." Burton also said that he wants to be in a competitive car and that, if none were available in the Cup Series, he would consider a move back down to the Nationwide Series.

As far as who will land the No. 31 car next year, most signs point to Newman. Because Caterpillar will stay with the team and likely sponsor around 24 races, Newman bringing along his current sponsor, Quicken Loans, would fill out the team's sponsorship slate quite nicely. Another option would be for Childress to give the ride to his grandson. Though it hasn't been formally announced, an AdvoCare press release saying they were leaving RCR's Nationwide Series program indicated they were doing so because Dillon would be moving to the Sprint Cup Series next year. While Newman is the most likely candidate, Childress could possibly find it easier to foot the bill for some races so his grandson could run the full schedule.

Burton moved to RCR in the final races of the 2004 season from Roush Racing's No. 99 car. He has won 21 times in his career, including four times for RCR. He has qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup three times, once in 2006 and again in 2008 and 2010. However, since that most recent championship bid, Burton has finished 20th and 19th in 2011 and 2012 respectively. While he made a solid run at the top ten in points over this summer, bad racing luck has relegated him to 22nd in points heading into this weekend's race at Richmond International Raceway.