Burton hot under the collar after costly pit-road miscue

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Jeff Burton was painfully blunt and to the point.

"We have to make a decision whether we want to be a championship team or do we just want to pretend to be one," Burton said. "I think we're a championship team. I think our guys will get it together and we'll be just fine."

As he walked briskly away from his No. 31 Chevrolet following Saturday night's Showtime Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Burton talked about the costly pit-road blunder that definitely cost him a shot at contending for the win in the closing laps.

When Joey Logano brought out the 11th and final caution on Lap 342, Burton had just taken the lead from eventual winner Denny Hamlin. That allowed Burton to lead the field down pit road, the plan being to bolt on two right-side tires and take enough fuel to go the rest of the distance. But what should have been a routine stop turned horribly wrong when Burton ran over the hose to the front tire changer's air gun as he left the pit box.

"The jack fell early and my signal on a two-tire stop is when the jack falls, go," Burton said. "The jack fell, I went. The lug nuts probably weren't tight and the right-front [tire changer] wasn't around [the front of the car]. We just made a mistake there."

The penalty? Starting at the tail end of the lead-lap cars. And even though Burton returned on the following lap to change left-side tires, restarting deep in the pack was too much of a deficit to overcome. He rallied from 16th with 17 laps remaining to finish eighth, but the sting of giving away what appeared to be a top-five finish -- and perhaps a chance to snap a 51-race winless streak -- was still fresh on Burton's mind minutes after the end of the race.

"We are making little mistakes and it's really costing us," Burton said. "We have fast enough race cars and we're doing a good job. We're just not doing everything well and it's bit us a bunch."

Jeff Gordon's near-misses have been getting more attention this season, but Burton has had more than his share of bad luck in 2010, particularly in the last six races. He led 140 laps at Martinsville but crashed after cutting a tire, following contact with another car. He led 28 laps at Talladega and had one of the strongest cars, but got caught up in an accident triggered by Jimmie Johnson.

Richmond was another incidence of "close doesn't count," as he led 20 laps and finished fourth. And again on Saturday night, Burton had a car worthy of getting him back to Darlington's Victory Lane for the first time since he swept both races in 1999, but couldn't close the deal.

But before he walked through the garage gate and off into the darkness of a South Carolina evening, Burton had one final comment about his -- and his team's -- commitment.

"It's frustrating and it's disappointing and I'm sorry to all of our fans and our sponsors, but we will get it together."

Related:
• Video: Pit-road troubles doom contenders