Jeff Burton is contending for a spot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup this season. Credit: Autostock

Thanks to Miller, Burton's comeback no fluke

RCR's improvements have veteran driver back in saddle

Every once in awhile I will put out my weathered tape of the 2003 spring race at Darlington.

You know the race. Ricky Craven edged Kurt Busch at the line. Instead of asking Craven, "do you know who I am?", Busch hugged him. It seems like 10 years ago.

	RYAN SMITHSON •   E-mail Ryan •   Opinion archive

The race had an interesting footnote: Scott Miller was Ricky Craven's crew chief with PPI Racing at the time. And he's a large reason why Jeff Burton has seemingly come back from the dead this year.

For the first time in nearly three years, Burton has three consecutive top-10 finishes and his average start of 17th is the best in his career.

Actually, it should be even higher than 17th -- he drew the dreaded first draw on a hot day at Phoenix and went out third from last as the wind picked up at Talladega.

Qualifying may not look important on paper, but qualifying determines pit selection, and pit stops seem to grow more important by the year.

Burton is a smart and patient driver, and that fact alone will always keep him in the top 20 in points. But things are different this season. Some of his old swagger is back.

He is actually threatening to make the Chase, and a lot of that is due to the men behind him. The engines are better and so are the bodies.

Because Burton is still young (38), we can't blame his recent downfalls on his age. Drivers are famous for saying "I have not forgotten how to drive race cars," but the sad part is, their body often has.

Burton has not advanced to that stage yet, but from 2002-05, he was poor ol' Jeff. His laps-led count fell for five years in a row. He led only seven laps in 2005, or two less than Mike Wallace.

That is where guys like Miller and team engineer Jeff Curtis have helped. Miller is almost 50 years old, which is Methuselah in the age where most crew chiefs are around 30. Curtis is only 26, but he was already out of Cornell before Miller was even given a crew chief job.

It hasn't hurt that RCR recently added Kevin Buskirk, a highly regarded engineer who was one of the most respected employees at Robert Yates Racing.

Miller has been a good balance at Richard Childress Racing because he has a reputation as someone who will actually share information with teammates.

That trait is not a universal one in the Nextel Cup garage, and Miller's philosophy can be traced to his background of working with small Indy-car and NASCAR teams. It was hard to develop an ego while working for little-teams-that-could like PPI, Diamond Ridge and Tri-Star.

Granted, Burton still has a long way to go. RCR, with all of its gains, has a long way to go to catch Roush, Hendrick and Gibbs, but Richard Childress can sit back and have faith that the major changes he has made are paying off.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.