Jeff Burton has become the voice of the Sprint Cup Series for many race fans. Some have even referred to him as the "mayor" of the garage.

Jeff Burton celebrates his sole 2008 victory at Bristol earlier this season. Burton is fourth in the standings following two of the 10 Chase races.

But unlike other elder statesman, he's still competitive. He's a participant in the Chase for the Sprint Cup for the second year in a row, and he has helped his Richard Childress Racing team recover from the loss of its one-time star driver, Dale Earnhardt. For the second straight year, all three RCR drivers — Burton, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer — are among the elite 12 that are racing for the title in the final 10 races of the season.

When Burton joined RCR midway through the 2004 season, the team was still trying to adjust to the post-Earnhardt era. And Burton's career at Roush Racing had reached a point where he wasn't getting the results he wanted.

After finishing in the top five in points for four straight years (1997 to 2000), he finished between 10th and 12th for three straight seasons (2001- 2003). And he went five years without a victory.

NASCAR

But the union with Childress eventually worked. He scored his drought-ending victory at Dover in 2006, an accomplishment that gave him the Chase points lead, which he held for four straight weeks before a blown engine at Martinsville ended his title bid. Last year, he finished

seventh in the standings, but ended the season strong, with top-10 finishes in five of the last six races.

This year, he's fourth after a ninth-place finish at Dover and he maintains that it's still too early to draw accurate conclusions about who will win the title.

"It's important to understand that this is a 10- week stretch," he said on last week's NASCAR teleconference. "So much happens in 10 weeks. People who watch racing ought to remember that two races out of 10 can completely ruin a guy's chance to win a championship. It's one race at a time, and 10 races is an eternity."

Although he has had a fairly successful season with a victory at Bristol and 14 top-10 finishes, he'd like to have more.

"There were obviously things that could have gone a little better for us," he said. "I've said it for three or four weeks — I really feel we stand to run really well in the next [eight] weeks. It's one week at a time. We've put a lot of focus into each and every race."

That's not terribly hard to do, he said, when you're living out your childhood dreams. Even the off-track demands placed on a Cup driver can't take away from that.

"This is a very difficult way to make a living," he said. "It's a lot of time away from home. I've spent well, well over [250] days from home last year.

"But I love what I do. You have a hard time getting me to tell you I have a tough deal.

"I'm 41 years old, and I'm doing what I wanted to do when I was 7. I love what I do for a living. It is difficult, but it's supposed to be difficult. This is the highest form of racing in North America. It's supposed to be hard. If it's not hard, then something's wrong. It requires a lot of effort, and a lot of time, but it is what it is."