Live and learn

Jeff Gordon can win all of the races he wants this year and finish in the top 10 every weekend, but once the Chase starts, all of that won't mean a thing.

The way Jeff Burton sees it, this year the Nextel Cup is as good as his. The Richard Childress Racing driver said he "put a down payment" on it last season.

Two devastating bouts of bad luck that ripped the trophy right out of Jeff Burton's hands during last year's playoffs, he said, have put him in the fast lane in this year's championship race. He said his team is "wiser and smarter and more emotionally prepared" to handle the pressure of the Chase.

"I think we learned an awful lot from what we went through last year. We have put in the blood sweat and tears. In years past, I had been knocking on the door of the championship, but last year we had a great shot at winning it," Jeff Burton said. "And then … boom."

In 2006, Jeff Burton led the Chase after four consecutive races. When he finished third in the Bank of America 500 in October in Concord, N.C., he held a 45-point lead over Matt Kenseth with five races remaining.

Then his engine gave up almost halfway through the Subway 500 in Martinsville, Va. He finished 42 {+n}{+d}, dropped four places in the standings and was trailing Kenseth, the new leader, by 48 points.

And it only got worse for Jeff Burton. Two weeks later, a tire blew at Texas Motor Speedway, sending him into the wall. He lost two more places in the standings that day and was seventh. He eventually finished seventh, 247 points behind first-time champion Jimmie Johnson.

"Now, though, we can deal with things like that much better," Jeff Burton said. "And during a championship battle, that is very important."

Good thing for Jeff Burton because it looks as if he's going to be a key player in the playoffs again.

After finishing third in Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 in Sonoma — one of his three career top-five finishes on a road course — he is fourth in the driver standings heading into this weekend's race in Loudon, N.H., 354 points behind first-place Jeff Gordon.

This season the top 12 drivers in the points after 26 races will advance into the 10-week showdown that will decide the winner of the Nextel Cup championship.

Jeff Burton's crew already looks more like a championship contender. Last year, he spent the first 10 weeks of the season outside the top 10 in the driver standings. But since he finished third in the 2007 season opener at Daytona International Speedway in February, he has been in the top five after every race.

At one point, Jeff Burton, who has completed 93 percent of the 4,869 laps that have been run this season, was in second place for five consecutive weeks.

He won one race during that span, the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, one of the two victories that he has recorded since he joined Richard Childress Racing in August 2004. His other trip into victory lane with RCR came during the Chase last fall in Dover, Del.

"Richard has been very committed to making changes in the company to make us more successful. And we reaped some of those benefits last year," Jeff Burton said. "Every year, you try and build on the year before, and this year we tried to step it up again. Our downfall, honestly, has been the Car of Tomorrow. We have to step that program up."

There's nothing like being a bit too hard on yourself. The COT has been used seven times this season, and Jeff Burton has finished in the top 10 in more than half of them. His average finish using NASCAR's new car is 12.7. That's respectable, considering in this ultra-competitive era of NASCAR a top-15 finish is treated almost like a victory.

"OK, so we maybe are not terrible. But then, we have a race like Darlington," Jeff Burton said. "I thought going into the race that we were going to be in pretty good shape (with the COT), and we didn't run very well at all."

Yet he still finished 10 {+t}{+h}, one of the eight top-10 finishes he has recorded this season, further proof that at times, Jeff Burton can be his own worst critic.

"Jeff is more focused than ever. He knows what he wants out of the race car. Jeff continues to bring more and more to his race team and RCR as a whole," Childress said. "And Jeff and the guys will only get better the longer that they are together."

This week there's another COT race, the Lenox Industrial Tools 300, at a track on which Jeff Burton has had his share of success (New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, N.H.). He finished seventh in both of his races on the 1.058-mile oval last year.

"We'd like to believe that we have finally figured some of the things out with the Car of Tomorrow," Jeff Burton said. "Some of it is a feel thing. Some of it is I'm not trying to get the right thing out of the car. Some of it is technology. Maybe I am not asking enough out of the team. It is a learning process, and we'd like to think that we are finally starting to get better than we have been."

Where:New Hampshire International Raceway, 1.054-mile oval, Loudon, N.H.

When: Sunday

Qualifying:Friday

TV:TNT, 10 a.m.

What happened here last year: With a number of drivers concerned about running out of the fuel even before the extra laps of a green-white-checkered finish, including frontrunner Elliott Sadler, the race was extended even longer when Michael Waltrip ran into the back of Robby Gordon on Lap 303. The last restart finally came on Lap 307. By that time, both rookie Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards had moved past Sadler, but Kyle Busch easily pulled away from the challengers in the two-lap sprint to the finish. Edwards dived past Hamlin on the final lap to take second place.

Driver to watch:Tony Stewart. He has finished in the top 10 11 times this year second only to Jeff Gordon's 14.

Where:Richmond International Raceway, 0.75-mile oval, Richmond, Va.

When:Saturday

Qualifying:Friday

TV:ESPN, 4:30 p.m.

What happened here last year:Sam Hornish Jr. led 212 laps and beat Vitor Meira to the finish in the race which ended under caution after Helio Castroneves, Hornish's Marlboro Team Penske teammate, got a flat tire in Turn 2 with three laps to go in the 250-lap race. A few moments before Castroneves brought out the yellow flag for the fourth and final time, Meira dived underneath Dario Franchitti to take over second

Driver to watch:Tony Kanaan. He has led at least one lap in each of the past 12 races, the longest current streak in the series.

Where:New Hampshire International Raceway, 1.054-mile oval, Loudon, N.H.

When:Saturday

Qualifying:Saturday

TV:KABC/7, 11:30 a.m.

What happened here last year: Carl Edwards easily held off a late challenge from Kevin Harvick for the victory. That meant Edwards had finished no worse than second five times during an eight-race span. Clint Bowyer, Harvick's Richard Childress Racing teammate, appeared on the way to an easy victory, leading 127 of the first 143 laps before making a green-flag pit stop, the first of the leaders to head for pit road for his final stop. That gave the lead to Edwards, who got a big break moments later when the seventh and final caution flag of the race waved, putting Bowyer a lap down.

Driver to watch:Edwards. He has finished in the top 10 in all but three of his 17 starts this season

Champ Car World Series:Mont-Tremblant Grand Prix, Sunday, Circuit Mont-Tremblant, Montreal, ESPN, 11 a.m.

NHRA:Summit Racing Equipment Nationals, Sunday, Norwalk, Ohio, ESPN2, 5 p.m.

Formula One:French Grand Prix, Sunday, Circuit de Nevers, Magny-Cours

Trucks:O'Reilly 200, Saturday, Memphis Motorsports Park, Speed Channel, 5:30 p.m

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