LOUDON, N.H. -- Jeff Burton was watching the finish of the Nationwide Series race last week at Road America and didn't like what he was seeing. The next day, he was experiencing something very similar, referring to the state of racing at Sonoma as "horrendous."

"I thought the behavior shown last week from driver to driver was completely unacceptable. If our sport is going to become that, then we need to change it from racing to demolition cars because that wasn't racing last week," Burton said.

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There's a phrase we use all the time -- give and take. There is a lot more taking anymore than there is giving.

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-- TONY STEWART

While Jeff Gordon was at the forefront of the aggression at Sonoma -- in particular drawing the ire of Martin Truex Jr. -- he wasn't alone. And although Infineon Raceway's road course last week has given way to the flat oval of New Hampshire Motor Speedway this week, the issue of rough driving remains a hot topic, because it has been a frequent occurrence this season regardless of the track type.

And for the old guard of NASCAR, drivers such as Burton and Mark Martin, this newfound lack of respect is getting old.

"Ultimately, it's the drivers' responsibility to have some respect for each other," Burton said. "The last 10 laps of that race didn't look like we were the best drivers in this country -- it looked like we were some of the worst drivers in this country. It takes zero skill to run over top of anybody. It takes no ability whatsoever to do that ... and what we saw last week wasn't about ability. It was about a lack of willingness to do the right thing.

"Everybody in this garage knows how to use the brake pedal and use the throttle and use the steering wheel. Yet people chose not to use it correctly because it was either in their best interest to run over the guy in front of them, or they were trying really hard to keep from getting run over from behind."

Burton's first full season in the Cup Series was 1994, a year after Gordon's. So if Burton grew up in a more genteel time, then so, too, did Gordon. Which is why Burton -- who wasn't one of the many drivers to take exception to Gordon at Sonoma, by the way -- could understand the situation from Gordon's point of view.

"I think Jeff will readily admit that he hit way too many people last week, but I know exactly why he did it," Burton said. "The reason why he did it was if he slowed down as much as he really needed to slow down, he was terrified that the guy behind him was going to run over him. (Continued)