Jeff Burton had three top-fives and six top-10s in 2005. Credit: Autostock

In Review: Jeff Burton

The 2005 Nextel Cup Series season went nothing like Jeff Burton expected it would -- but he'll rest comfortably through the current holiday season.

Burton will do so knowing his Richard Childress Racing team has taken the steps in personnel restructuring, as well as overall organization, to better facilitate Burton's No. 31 Chevrolet to improve upon his 18th position in the standings.

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That was nothing like Burton foresaw when he left Roush Racing -- his racing home for nine seasons -- to go to RCR in August 2004.

In those 14 races with Childress, Burton's average finish was 15.43, with a top-five; three top-10s and 11 top-15 finishes. He led three of those races for a total of 39 laps.

In 36 races this season, Burton labored to a 19.56 average finishing position, led only seven laps in two races and totaled three top-fives; six top-10s and 15 top-15 finishes.

"I would say (the season) was disappointing," Burton said of his second-consecutive 18th-place championship finish, which came after eight years in a row of finishing no worse than 13th in the standings.

"We started out slow (and) really didn't start the year with a real good game plan. We didn't prepare over the winter like we needed to, and it showed."

Team owner Childress made a crew chief change on Burton's car late in the season, moving Scott Miller within the organization -- and that's the system that'll be in place in 2006.

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Finishes of third at Phoenix in the spring and second at Bristol at summer's end were the team's minimal highlights until Burton closed with four top-15 finishes in his last six races, including a top-five and two top-10s.

"We did get better as the year went on, but we started so far behind that it was hard to get to what I consider to be a respectable place," said Burton, whose highest position in the points came when he was 15th, for one race following Daytona's Pepsi 400.

Jeff Burton finished third at Phoenix and second at Bristol. Credit: Autostock

"We did put ourselves in position a few times to win some races, at Bristol and Phoenix," Burton said. "But we didn't lead enough laps, we didn't contend for enough wins -- so overall it was disappointing, although I do believe that we learned a lot."

Miller stepped into a fill-in role with RCR teammate Kevin Harvick at Bristol in the spring and Harvick won. Miller made some marginal improvements in teammate Dave Blaney's No. 07 Chevy, where he was moved at mid-season, and Burton's enthused about his team's direction.

"By doing things the way we did going into 2005, we are going to be a whole lot better going into 2006 because it taught everybody a lesson -- a real valuable lesson," Burton said. "It was almost like we didn't come out of the blocks like we needed to.

"Going into 2006 everybody recognizes that we can't do that again, and we are doing things totally different this year to prepare. It will end up working out for us, but it was a long year that wasn't very much fun."

That was the state throughout RCR, where Harvick's team was static in 14th in the owner standings, Burton moved from 24th to 18th, and Blaney's 07 fell from 22nd to 27th.

Childress made changes, and Burton's satisfied they'll pay off.

Dave Blaney and Jeff Burton Credit: Autostock

"I'm happy with the game plan we have going into '06 right now," Burton said. "I think the entire company at RCR -- the engine department, the chassis department, the aero department, engineering -- every single department in our company is much stronger than it was at this point last year.

"That alone will help all the teams at RCR run better. In particular with the Cingular team, I believe that we are going to be very organized.

"We're going to have a specified game plan that we're going to follow. It's a very good race team with a lot of good people. Like I said, we just got off to a slow start and kind of got knocked back on our heels and never were able to get headed in the right direction."

Burton said Miller will be the key to turning this season into a successful 2006.

"Scott is going to bring us some leadership, a really good game plan," Burton said. "I've learned already that he is not going to accept any excuses on why the 31 car doesn't have the very, very, very best cars available.

"He's going to be on quality control very hard to make sure that every single car in our shop is the best it can be. If it's not, he's going to get rid of it and replace it with something that is.

"I think that's what his strong point is going to be, being able to bring better hardware to the racetrack. He'll be really good at that and also being able to communicate with the other crew chiefs at RCR.

"He and Todd Berrier have a really good relationship and work well together. Gil (Martin) coming back to the Cup shop is going to be a huge advantage for us.

"They both have a lot of respect for Scott, and value his opinion. All of that together is going to help us."