Doubters, take that! Burton back on the beam

You never want to say "I told you so." But admit it -- sometimes you just can't help it.

And admit this, too. Whether or not you had Jeff Burton on your Dickies 500 fantasy roster, any time in the first half of the race Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, you had to be thinking Burton -- and you, by default -- were screwed.

But it's a better-than-average day when you can learn something. And even if it was no revelation to Todd Berrier, you'd better believe Jeff Burton is one tough, focused individual.

Burton earned a nomination for the 2009 "tough man award" in Sprint Cup -- if there is such a thing -- when he guided his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet to ninth at the finish.

Ho hum, you say? Maybe, considering Burton's recent record at Texas was an average finish of seventh in his previous five starts, including one win.

But that would mean you weren't taking into consideration that Burton had flat knocked himself silly on Friday afternoon when he crashed his car during pre-qualifying practice.

How badly dazed was Burton? Bad enough that he only made a token qualifying effort, seven-tenths of a second off his best lap in that ill-fated practice, but a whopping 1.1 seconds off Jeff Gordon's snappy pole speed of 191-plus mph.

Burton wasn't feeling "as bad as that car looks" as Berrier, his 1-race-old crew chief, cracked Friday evening. But that already was after Burton had been taken out of RCR's Nationwide car for Saturday's race.

Now that ought to tell you everything you need to know about how shaken this guy was. Nobody gets out of a potential race-winning car at a track where they're a multiple past champion. Nobody would, and certainly not Burton.

But he didn't have a choice. He accepted it, put his head down and concentrated on getting ready for a battle.

And so to come through and concentrate well enough to not eke -- but wrangle his way into the top 10 by race's end, says a lot about a man's intestinal fortitude. And he didn't achieve it with a car that was a pathetic beneficiary of a fuel-mileage gamble -- oh, no.

Berrier and Burton were solid. It took them half the race to get into the top 20, but once they made that plateau, there was no looking back. Burton arrowed into the top 10 with about a quarter of the race remaining and was a fixture up there from then on out.

He didn't have much to say afterward. "What a great way to end the weekend" was the highlight.

Give me a break. He had to be feeling increasingly worse as the miles accrued. But so what? When it came time to go, Burton was ready.

And this was in a car that Berrier later said he was kind of embarrassed to have on his transporter as anything but a paper weight. And don't forget, while it was only a ninth place, it was the second consecutive top 10 for a driver who only has a total of eight all season in 34 races.

And there was that car.

"I'm probably more excited that we ran ninth with this car, which I don't consider to be very good -- I don't have many kind words for it," Berrier said. "We'd used it a couple times earlier this season, but it's a couple specs removed from what we're now on. Shame on us for having it here as a backup, I guess -- taking too much for granted.

"It just didn't have near enough grip, and we could make either end of it bad, but we never could bring both of them together. It was a fair ways off for a race car, so he done a pretty good job to get a top 10 out of that."

And much later, as he walked between his race car in the garage and the transporter that already held one thoroughly used-up Impala SS, Berrier didn't even try to hide his satisfaction as he grinned at a visitor.

"No, it didn't teach me anything I didn't know about [Burton], but it probably validated a few things I'd already figured," Berrier said. "And that's that he'll drive all race. I mean, he drives that thing really hard -- it was freakin' sideways off the corner every lap and he was legging it the whole time, so I was pretty impressed with him.

"It was the first time I'd watched him [at Texas] for 334 laps, so you learn a lot about people and what they do -- and where their heart is. He knew what he needed to do and he was all there -- 100 percent."

It can only make Berrier long for the next time, when Burton has the right stuff set under him.

"It's encouraging to know how good we'll be running, moving forward when we bring the right car to the track," Berrier said. "Because there were times [Sunday] when we were a solid top-five car, there were times we were the fastest car with something that shouldn't be."

After just two rounds, it seems like in the top 10 is right where Burton and Berrier should be.

And oh, yeah -- next year, when this tough as nails hombre and his gritty sidekick with a wrench up his sleeve are serious Chase contenders -- don't forget.

I told you so.

Stay tuned (Part II)

With two races to go in the Chase, I'd say of our "stay tuned" topics, Denny Hamlin is gonna succeed and Juan Montoya is gonna fail. As you recall, after the debacle at Lowe's Motor Speedway there was some question if Montoya could regain the top five in the standings by the end of the season and if Hamlin could earn a spot on the stage at the inaugural Vegas Cup banquet by moving back into the top 10.

Well, after he crashed at Texas I'd say Montoya, who's now sixth, won't supplant Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart in the top five, because Busch is on a roll even as Pat Tryson rolls out; and Stewart, well, is just Stewart and it seems to me he'd end this inaugural team-owning season on a tear.

Hamlin, on the other hand, has been on the tear everyone knew he was capable of and don't be surprised if he wins one of these last two. He's eighth going to Phoenix and comfortably 118 points clear of 11th place Carl Edwards.

Kyle Busch Victory Watch

All right -- now we got those odds where we want 'em. Six races to go and ol' KB only needs two to tie, and three to win. My money's on the boy, I'm sorry, to equal or better the record he set a year ago, of 21 national series wins in a year: 8 Cup, 10 Nationwide and 3 Truck.

I gotta admit, I'd be a lot happier if Dave Rogers' gas-mileage gamble had paid off and Shrub had coined his latest bit of history with a three-peat. But as it is, he's at 19 wins: 4 Cup, 8 Nationwide and 7 Truck. Given he was already at 21 at this point last year; you could go "hmmm." But look here: Carl Edwards won four of those last six in 2008 and he's been winless in Cup this season; and Busch this year, across the board, is better than he was a year ago.

So it's a done deal. And I promise, once he breaks this record, we'll leave the charting alone in 2010, even though ol' Shrubbie would be a threat to reset it every year he competes in all three series, which he isn't doing full time next year.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.