“You know, I actually had a conversation with someone about this the other day because I’m curious how it starts. I really don’t read a lot of rumor things on the Internet because when it involves me most of the time they have it wrong. But then there’s an element of it that is right, too. They can say 40 things and there might be three of those that have an element of possibly being correct, but then on other stories they nail it so you have to pay attention to it. If one member of the media reports something, it forces everyone else to report it. The problem I have with what went on last week is that Richard Childress and I have had zero conversations about me replacing Robby Gordon or me replacing Johnny Sauter. We’ve had zero conversations about that and that’s just the truth. One reporter reported that we were having these conversations and then it went very specific on how these things were gonna happen. It was reported kind of as rumor, but the next phase of it went into factual stuff that was fiction, but it was reported as fact. On Tuesday of last week, I had two strangers come up and congratulate me on my new ride. My attorney called me on Tuesday morning and asked me point blank, ‘What in the world is going on?’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘I’m in my car and they just said on the radio that sources confirmed that Jeff Burton would replace Johnny Sauter in the AOL Chevrolet at the all-star race in May.’ It was reported as fact. That’s when I start having a problem and that’s when I started to get upset because every member of this team deserves 100 percent effort from me and I deserve 100 percent effort from them. Every member on this team and my car owner and everybody that has anything at all to do with this team deserves to know exactly what’s going on. When these things get going that aren’t true, it puts a little bit of doubt and that’s not right. A lot of people have made the comment and the claim that Roush Racing has done a poor job of getting a sponsor for the 99 car. I’ve had a lot of people walk up to me and say, ‘They’re not taking care of you,’ and things like that. But the fact of the matter is that it hasn’t quit running. They’re running the team out of their pockets. No one has gotten a decrease in pay, so I think Roush Racing deserves some credit for doing the right thing for everybody on this team. Instead, they get negative and they also get people out there talking like the driver is gonna leave and that’s not right. If there was truth to some of it, then I wouldn’t be up in arms about it. I would be trying to avoid it, but when people start reporting stuff that’s factual when it’s not, I have a real problem with that.”(Ford Racing)(4-21-2004)
