While Jeff Burton may not have had a car capable of winning the race, the South Boston, Va., native quietly notched a hard-earned top-10 finish behind the wheel of the No. 31 AT&T Chevrolet in Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The solid run was Burton's fourth top-15 finish in as many Cup Series starts this season and moved him up one position, to fifth, in NASCAR's championship point standings. He currently sits 110 markers behind leader Kyle Busch.

During Friday's time trials, Burton wheeled the AT&T Chevy around the 1.54-mile facility to its best lap of 30.491 seconds (181.824 mph), which was good enough to line up 15th for Sunday's 500-mile event.

Shortly following the green flag, which waved just after 2 p.m. local time, Burton was quick to report to crew chief Scott Miller that his car was loose entering the corners and tight through the middle and on exit. After free-falling to as low as 19th on the day's opening laps, the veteran driver rocketed through the field and was scored 11th when the first of eight caution flags waved on lap 38.

The third-year crew chief called for four fresh tires, including an air pressure adjustment to help slow the transition from tight to loose. The lightning-fast pit stop netted the team three positions and Burton returned to the racing surface eighth in the running order.

Over the next 120 laps, Burton ran in the top 10 as he continued to wrestle with a loose-handling machine. He visited pit road twice under caution for service but the air pressure adjustments would not remedy the bright orange machine's handling.

Green flag pit stops began on lap 164 and Burton peeled off the racing surface three laps later. Describing his AT&T Chevy as having “a case of the wiggles,” Miller called for another round of air pressure adjustments and once the AT&T over-the-wall crew sent Burton back on track and the pit stops cycled through, the 19-time Cup Series winner was scored ninth.

Despite the adjustments, the AT&T Chevy still suffered from a loose condition. However, Burton was able to hold his ground, eighth in the running order over the next 31 circuits.

The fourth caution flag of the day was brought out for debris on lap 198 and Burton informed Miller that the No. 31 Chevrolet had no rear grip and the rear-end was sideways through the turns.

Miller brought Burton down pit road on lap 200 and the AT&T crew went to work bolting on four fresh Goodyear tires, with major air pressure adjustments, and adding fuel, sending Burton back on track eighth.

The new adjustments seemed to cure the handling of the AT&T Chevy quite a bit as Burton was able to snare four positions over the next 57 laps.

Caution slowed the field again on lap 261 and Burton reported that while he had rear grip, he continued to struggle with the front end and the machine was also tighter than he would like it to be. Another four-tire stop, including air pressure adjustments to the right-side tires, was in order but the slower than normal pit stop resulted in Burton losing two positions and restarting the 325-lap event sixth.

The air pressure changes proved to be costly as Burton's machine quickly swapped characteristics. Although he held his position, the 2007 Samsung 500 winner could not enter the turns without the back wanting to come around.

The day's last caution flag on lap 281 would be the team's only help of aiding the ill-handling machine. Miller reversed his air pressure adjustments from the previous stop as the times Burton posted on the last run were almost as fast as the leaders.

Unfortunately, the reversed changes had no positive effect on the AT&T Chevy as Burton lost several positions over the closing 37 laps and crossed the finish line 10th.

Busch won the race beating Tony Stewart to the checkered flag by nearly two seconds. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Greg Biffle and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top-five finishers.

Burton's Richard Childress Racing (RCR) teammates Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick finished sixth and seventh, respectively, placing all three RCR cars in the top 10 for the first time this season.

Next weekend, Jeff Burton and the AT&T Racing team head towards Thunder Valley for the running of the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Live coverage of the event will be televised on FOX Sunday, March 16 beginning at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The race will also be covered live on the Performance Racing Network and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the fifth of 36 races on the NASCAR Cup Series tour will be televised live on SPEED Friday, March 14 beginning at 3:30 p.m. EDT.

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