DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The saying goes "Speed Kills," but if you ask Jeff Burton, it's a lack of speed that's been holding his Richard Childress Racing team back from contending more vigorously for a Cup championship.

It's appropriate that Burton took center stage at Daytona International Speedway on Friday at Preseason Thunder Fan Fest, because coming to RCR in the latter half of 2004 certainly revived the veteran driver's career, even as Childress' teams went on a surge.

“

We're striving for greatness here. We're not looking to be mediocre, we're striving for greatness [and] if we want to be analytical and understand what it is that we have to do better, then it's speed.

”

-- JEFF BURTON

But it also points out the problem. In Burton's first full season with the team, 2005, its best car was Kevin Harvick's, in 14th. Since then, Harvick has finished fourth, 10th and fourth; while Burton's been seventh, eighth and sixth. Newcomer Clint Bowyer iced the cake by making the last two Chases and finishing third and fifth in 2007 and 2008, respectively.

But with the exception of Bowyer in '07, no RCR driver has consistently or seriously challenged for the championship -- won the last three years by Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson. And cutting it to the bone in an instant, Burton said the needed change is simple, though finding it won't be.

"Well, unfortunately it's the same answer I've given the last three years -- or at least the last two years -- and that's speed," Burton said. "You know, the thing that we haven't done very well as a company, if you look at the laps we've led, the races we've won, that's our weakness -- that's a big weakness.

"In racing, speed is pretty darned important. We have to continue to do the things that we do well, but we also have to find a way to lead more laps to put ourselves in position to win more races, and you do that by brute force speed, and that's what our focus has been on."

Burton has the consistency angle down pat, particularly in the last three seasons, where he's averaged seven top-five finishes and 18 top-10s each season, while winning a single race in 2006 and 2007 and winning twice last year.

It makes him optimistic about '09, when RCR will expand to a four-car team, with Bowyer joining crew chief Shane Wilson on a new team and Casey Mears joining the No. 07 Impala squad tended by Gil Martin and formerly chauffeured by Bowyer. (Continued)