This weekend in the Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway Jeff Burton will participate in his 500th Cup Series race.

Burton himself can’t believe that he has been living his dream for that long.

“It’s pretty hard to believe I’m coming up on my 500th start," Burton said. "Professionally, there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing. Competing in NASCAR’s top-level series has been a lifelong dream, and I’m fortunate that I have been doing what I love for as long as I have, but I still believe my best years are ahead of me. I’ve learned a lot over the years, and this environment has made me a better person because of it. Racing is something I dreamed of as a kid, and I’m fortunate that I am doing it.”

Since beginning his career in NASCAR’s top level Burton has amassed 20 wins (tied for 30th on the all time list), 115 top-5s and 205 top-10s.

His impressive resume leads him to California this weekend in hopes of raising his stats and sealing a spot in the Chase for himself.

"Well, we are obviously in a position of need," he said in assessing his Chase hopes. "We need to get ourselves in the Chase. That is goal No. 1. To do that, we need to have good finishes, we need to run well, we need to compete at a high level, and we need to get the best finish that we can. We certainly don't want to put ourselves in a situation that we didn't have to be in because I did something silly or we had a mechanical problem.

"But at the same time, you have to compete at a high level. The competition is too tough. So we are going to go out and try to win the race.  If we can't win the race, then we are going to try to finish second. If we can't finish second, then we are going to try to finish third. That is what we try to do every week."