Not surprisingly, South Boston’s Jeff Burton has plenty of fans at Richmond International Raceway who makes him feel quite comfortable. He considers this his home track, but that alone affords him no competitive advantage over other drivers here. The fact that he has already clinched a spot in the Chase does.

For the third straight year, Burton’s #31 Childress/AT&T Chevrolet will be among the elite field battling for NASCAR’s ultimate prize. Unlike his teammate Clint Bowyer, who hangs by a thread in the 12th and final Chase position, Burton will not have to be looking over his shoulder all Saturday night worrying about it.

“I came here two years ago in the situation that Clint’s in,” said Burton. “It’s a lot of stress and it’s fun to not have to be in that position.”

As RIR bears some similarities to New Hampshire and Phoenix, Burton can take advantage of this race to prepare for two of the crucial upcoming events.

“I don’t want to call this a test,” said Burton, “but we have the luxury of coming here and being able to try some things that we normally might be afraid to try.”

At this point of the season that luxury cannot be overstated, especially as many Sprint Cup teams still struggle to find consistency week to week with NASCAR’s “Car of Tomorrow” (COT).

“The COT thing is difficult,” said Burton. “In the first practice last week (at Fontana) I thought we had the best car on the track, then we ended up running 16th in the race. It’s really easy to find your way off center and get off track with it. It’s the same for everybody, but it’s a challenge.”

Burton, like his competitors, continues to adjust to the COT but feels good about the progress his team has made in the second half of the season, despite a few bumps in the road.

“We ran better at Bristol this last race than in the race in which we won, but we ended up getting in a wreck,” Burton said. “At Pocono we ran better in the second race than we did in the first race, but we had a penalty on pit road that messed us up. At Michigan we ran way better in the second race than in the first one.”

With one win, seven top-fives and 12 top-tens in his career at RIR, it wouldn’t be hard for Burton to improve on his 11th place finish in the spring race. A lot of that depends on how deep his crew digs into their bag of experimental tricks Saturday.

Peaking at the right time means everything in this business, and Burton wouldn’t mind paying a little now to reap the benefits when it matters most. Everyone knows which trophy Burton would prefer to hoist when all is said and done.