“Racing Came First”: Former NASCAR Driver on the Bittersweet State of Racing Families

Being a racing driver isn’t an easy affair. It is difficult both for the drivers as well as for the immediate family members of those drivers. This sentiment was recently highlighted by the comments of Jeff Burton in a conversation with another former NASCAR driver, Kenny Wallace as Burton confessed the sad state of families who are directly associated with racing drivers along with the sacrifices they have to make in order to be successful.

During the conversation between the two, Jeff Burton said, “I’ve told my kids I’ve been straight up with them. Y’all came second. I’m sorry. I mean, if that hurts your feelings, you need to understand that it’s not that I didn’t love you.”

“But at the end of the day, I had my… Kim (his wife) was the one that made you guys number one. She allowed me to make let you be number two. And by the way, she was number two.”

Burton added, “Racing came first and our wives knew it. They knew it. They might not want to admit it, but they knew it. It had to come first. And, you (Wallace) and I were good racecar drivers, but we were successful because we’ve had a damn high work ethic and that’s how it had to be.”

Jeff Burton says it was not “fun” to race in NASCAR

Speaking further into the conversation, Burton explained how people would often say that “it might have been fun racing,” but in reality, Burton argued that fun wasn’t the right word to describe how it felt to race along with some of the best drivers in the heat of the competition. He said, “Hell no, it wasn’t fun.”

“Fun is not the right word. It was intense, it was exhilarating, it was nauseating at times, it was terrifying… It was all of these things but fun wasn’t in the list.” 

Burton concluded that today he could sit back and take a nap, but back in 1998, he could not even afford to do such a thing as the race drew closer. His point was that in order to be successful, drivers often have to sacrifice everything to put their best foot forward. In that process, things like having fun or keeping out family, as the number one thing in your life is often next to impossible.