Role reversal for Burton on Roush team, but still in top 10

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Jeff Burton is in an unusual position.

Even though he is ninth in Winston Cup points, which isn't out of the ordinary, Burton trails all three of his Roush teammates in the standings.

"There's more pressure on our team than there has ever been," Burton said. "That's OK, that's the way it ought to be. When you don't perform, there should be more pressure on you."

Last season, Burton had his fifth straight topo-10 finish in points, and was the only of owner Jack Roush's drivers in that group. Burton also had the team's only two wins.

After six races this year, teammates Matt Kenseth (second), Kurt Busch (fifth) and Mark Martin (eighth) are ahead of Burton.

Burton is coming off a season-worst 26th-place finish in Bristol, Tenn., a mechanical failure hurting what was otherwise a strong run. He finished 12th in the season-opening Daytona 500 and followed that with his only two top-10 finishes this season.

"The last few years, we've kind of been the leader at Roush, the team that wins the most races and gains the most points and all of those things," Burton said. "We've had to let go of that."

This weekend, Burton is back in Texas for the Samsung/RadioShack 500. It was at Texas Motor Speedway five years ago where he got the first of his 17 Winston Cup victories -- all for Roush.

Busch and Kenseth, the younger half of the Roush team, have the team's two victories this season. Busch won two weeks ago in Bristol, and Kenseth in February in Rockingham, N.C..

Mark Martin, the original Roush driver hired in 1988, has 14 of his 32 career victories the past five years. But seven of those came in 1998, when he finished second to Jeff Gordon in championship race. Martin hasn't won in two years.

Last season was a disappointment for Burton even though he had the best team for Roush.

Instead of competing for the 2001 title, which was expected after four straight years in the top five, Burton finished 30th or worst in four of the first six races. He rebounded with two wins and five straight top-five finishes.

The strong finish made Burton and crew chief Frank Stoddard confident that no major changes were necessary during the winter. That feeling changed this spring, even though Burton won't elaborate on the changes being made.

"We are trying to restructure our program now instead of over the winter like we should have," Burton said. "It's mechanical things. It's things on the car, not people or anything like that."

One thing Burton is doing is taking advantage of his teammates and their success.

"We're having to let go of some of the stuff we've held on to very tight," he said. "We are looking next door at what the other guys are doing. We would have never built a car like this without some information and ideas we are getting from the other teams."

Busch is coming off an impressive victory in Bristol, where he boldly bumped Jimmy Spencer en route to his first career victory. Kenseth has finished in the top 10 in three straight races during his surprising rise to No. 2 in points, just 99 behind Sterling Marlin.

"We are feeling pretty good for where we are," Kenseth said. "It is such a long year, so I am not going to get too caught up in that right now. The team is pretty pumped up and we are doing the things we need to do to stay up there."

Kenseth and Burton are pulling double duty this weekend in Texas. They are also running in the O'Reilly 300 Busch series race Saturday.

Burton has won the other two Busch races he's been in this year, in Las Vegas and Darlington, S.C. He was also on the pole for both of those races, but will start 19th in Texas.

Burton had a qualifying run of 189.893 mph Thursday. That beat the old Texas record, but the track has been repaved since last year's race.