IN THE GARAGE WITH JEFF BURTON

We ran well. I'm really happy with the way we ran. We just had a bad night in the pits and kept getting behind. It's hard to make them up, and it's so hard to pass.

I got in the wall in the back straightaway early in the race and the crush panels were coming out of it. I was just trying too hard.

We drove back to eighth with no cautions or anything. We then got up to third and had a series of bad pit stops. We just kept losing spots.

The guys work hard. The guys try hard. They just didn't have a good night. We definitely had a car that could win, given the right track position.

We just couldn't gain any ground towards the end of the race. We had a fast car in the beginning of the race and we were gaining ground on the leaders, but we just couldn't capitalize there at the end.

We were tight through traffic, and it made it hard to pass the other cars. But it's another top-10 finish, and we'll take it and go on to Phoenix.

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Jeff Burton's bid to become the first driver to win two Nextel Cup races in one year at Texas Motor Speedway didn't materialize. Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 31 AT&T Chevrolet, started 27th and didn't help himself early when he hit the wall. Jeff Burton's Chevrolet then started dropping crush panels from the back of the car, causing two debris cautions. Jeff Burton dropped back as far as 42nd but managed to rally and run in the top five. His team struggled with pit stops throughout the race, ending Jeff Burton's chances of repeating. He finished sixth and moved from eighth to seventh in the points. Jeff Burton's not winning also proved costly to San Antonio's Nikki Kelly, who would have won $500,000 if Jeff Burton had won the race. Jeff Burton talked to staff writer Anthony Andro after the race.

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