AVONDALE, Ariz -- Jeff Burton didn't win the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday, and he refused to con himself into thinking his second-place finish was some kind of real, tangible triumph.

But after a season filled mostly with frustration and disappointment, he did have to admit that it still felt pretty good.

“

What we need to be about is disappointed when we don't win -- not excited when we finish second.

”

-- JEFF BURTON

Armed with a new crew chief in Todd Berrier, who replaced Scott Miller three weeks ago, Burton not only reeled off his best finish of the season but also registered his third consecutive top-10 finish and second top-five in the last three races. To put that into perspective, in the first 32 races of the season with Miller on top of his pit box, he managed just six top-10s and three top-fives.

Funny thing is, Burton credits not only Berrier but Miller with the sudden change of direction for his No. 31 Chevrolet team. While Berrier has taken over as crew chief, Miller still is highly involved with the team and all of the race operations at Richard Childress Racing as RCR's new director of competition.

"We're working hard, and we're by no means going to take what we've got moving into next year," Burton said. "That's what we did this year and look where it got us. We're going to keep working to make our stuff better.

"It's just a team effort. Todd Berrier obviously is doing a great job. Scott Miller is doing a great job at what he needs to do. We're just rallying around everyone's effort. We've got a ways to go, but we're digging."

Miller agreed, and added that he also was pleased to have another RCR car finish in the top 10 in the No. 33 Chevy driven by Clint Bowyer, who was seventh.

"I feel like we're gaining some ground," Miller said. "We've made some things better, and obviously Todd and Burton have hit it off very well. ... We've still got a long way to go to have the consistency and the speed of that Hendrick [Motorsports] lot but if we keep chipping away at it, I think we'll get there."

"I think [the improvement] has just been a matter of working hard in all areas. And it's really a matter of all the hard work that wasn't showing as improvement early in the year, finally showing up; because it takes a long time to put all those pieces together. Hopefully we can end this year on a high note with everybody and go into next year with some momentum."

Burton remains 17th in the points standings with only next Sunday's season finale at Miami-Homestead Speedway remaining on the 2009 schedule. He failed to make the 12-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup field for the first time since 2005, his first full season at RCR and also the last season -- until this one [at least so far] -- that he failed to win at least one race.

In the last three seasons prior to this one, Burton won a total of four races and finished seventh, seventh and sixth, respectively, in the final points standings. He said the recent improvement in this otherwise disappointing season by his standards has been brought on by a combination of factors, including but not limited to having Berrier switch to the No. 31 team from the No. 29 RCR car driven by Kevin Harvick.

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Jeff Burton talks about his runner-up finish at Phoenix.

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"Todd's obviously really good. But we've been working really hard on all of our cars, making our cars better. And I've been working hard on me, too," Burton said. "When you run bad, it's not one person's fault; it's everybody's fault. And it's as much mine as anybody's, so we've all been working hard and looking at ourselves in the mirror and trying to make ourselves better."

Burton, in fact, said he blamed himself for failing to win Sunday's race. He insisted that it could have been him in Victory Lane instead of Jimmie Johnson if he had qualified his car better. Instead, he qualified poorly and had to start near the rear of the field in 36th.

"We had him on speed [Sunday]; we just didn't have him on track position," Burton said. "Those guys are just tough. There is a reason they've now probably won four championships in a row. They're really hard to beat.

"We put our best effort forward and ran really well. But I feel like I lost this race for us on Friday. If we could have started up there, we would have been in a whole lot better shape. Nonetheless, it was a good day for us and we'll take it and we'll keep working."

The work, he repeated, will not end when the season does next weekend in Miami. To the contrary, that is when it will begin in earnest if Burton and the rest of the RCR gang are to have any chance of catching up to Johnson and the pace-setting cars fielded by Hendrick Motorsports throughout 2009.

"We've got a lot of work to do, still. We didn't win the race [Sunday]," Burton said. "We certainly had a fast car and we had a shot to win the race, but we didn't win the race. What we need to be about is disappointed when we don't win -- not excited when we finish second.

"It was good step forward for us, no question about it, and a little bit of a moral victory, I guess. But at the same time, the only victory was Jimmie's."