Burton questions belief of sagging competition level (cont'd)

"What I find interesting about it, now understand that not every race this year has been a barn-burner, but you know what -- not every race five years ago was a barn-burner either. I really believe if you look at where we are today, I've been doing this long enough to tell you that the competition is harder today then it's ever been.

"We have some people in the sport that talk about how great it used to be in the '80s, well go on back and look at how many cars finished on the lead lap and how many people led laps. It's clear that the quality of competition is better today."

That doesn't mean things couldn't improve, Burton said.

"Could it be better? It can always be better. There's no question it can always be better. Should we do things to make it better? There's no question we should do things to make it better. We should always be looking to do things to make it better. I think that's the main topic -- what can we change that will make it better?

"Should we look at things we can do to the car that will make it so the racing is better? That to me is the key issue. Anything we can do to create more competition, to create more exciting racing is ultimately in the best interest of the sport. That's the key thing and the key conversation that happened last week -- what can we change?

"And I'm not sure this was talked about -- is there a format with the points that could be looked at to make the point race better? Is there a format on restarts? Is there a format -- what can we do to the cars, with the procedures? Just because we've always done it a certain way doesn't mean we always have to do it that way.

"I think we'll see some changes in the near future and I think in the distant future trying to elevate it and trying to make it better. But the perception that the quality of racing has gone down, I don't buy that. I will tell you that people point to the spring race at California -- OK, it wasn't a great race. The last race at Darlington was as good as any race we've ever had at Darlington. The Phoenix race, the Richmond race, the Talladega race -- all those races were as good as it's going to get. A lot of it is perception, but perception is reality and we have to work hard to always try to be making it better."

Burton said tires were one thing he probably wouldn't mess with.

"There's a lot talked about softer compounds and everybody thinks if you just put softer rubber on a tire then that will fix the problem," Burton said. "That's not it. There's a whole lot more to tires than just softness. The construction of the tire has a whole lot more to do with it then the rubber that's on the tire.

"Goodyear, in my opinion, has made huge advances in the tire for this year. We've seen a much better tire. The only place we didn't really see an improvement was Atlanta. Atlanta was still an issue, but every other place Goodyear has brought a much better tire. And by the way, if you look at the races that I pointed out as being really good -- they had tires that were really good -- that's a mechanical grip thing.

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"The more we can do to create mechanical grip, the better we're going to be. I will tell you, I believe Goodyear has done the best job that I've ever seen them do in bringing us a tire that creates more grip. They've made huge improvements and they've come a long way over the last eight months and that has helped the cars."

One thing Burton said was a certain positive -- though it's a point that's foreign to a lot of fans -- is the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

"I think it's been a huge benefit," Burton said of the Chase format, which was instituted with a scintillating debut in 2004. "I think it's created a conversation with 15 weeks left to go in the year that we wouldn't have had before. I think it's created a conversation where we've had six or seven races to go in the Chase [and] we've still been able to talk about who's going to win it.

"Not every year has been as great as [2004], but it's created a situation where there's been good point races. I think it's the right thing to do. Is there a way to do it better under that format? There may be. From a competitor's standpoint, I really don't care what the rules are -- it's the same for everybody and I have to figure out how to make it work.

"Could we look at a better way of doing it to create more excitement? I'm all up for that. We don't always have the two- or three-car battle at Homestead that would be cool. If we can find a way to minimize the damage by having bad races and keep it closer, I would be a supporter of that."