Ward Burton wasn't among the top 20 drivers and the Haas CNC Racing-owned No. 0 Pontiac Grand Prix wasn't among the top 30 in the standings when the two hooked up for their first race last weekend in Atlanta. Needless to say, the expectations for this marriage were pretty low.

At the time, Burton was happy about that. He said that gave him the opportunity to go out and compete for a high finish and surprise a few folks. After finishing 13th, Burton certainly did give the team an instant boost. But the momentum was slowed almost immediately when NASCAR penalized the team for an illegal part, fined crew chief Tony Furr and docked Burton and team owner Carl Haas 25 points each. Now, the 13th-place finish has got an asterisk beside it and the expectations still aren't so high for this one-car team.

This time, Burton isn't so happy about it.

"I'm pretty happy right now because I've seen what we can do and I'm confident that we can (compete)," said Burton, who qualified his car 20th at Phoenix International Raceway on Friday. "I expect a lot."

Despite winning some of NASCAR's most prestigious races -- the 2001 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway and the 2002 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway -- Burton has never finished higher than ninth in the points standings or threatened to win a Winston Cup championship. In the late 1990s, he posted a couple of top 10 season finishes, but hasn't finished better than 14th since 1999. So Bill Davis Racing announced it would let Burton go earlier this season and the fledgling Haas CNC team, unsatisfied with its rookie racer Jack Sprague, scooped Burton up.

Burton said he isn't trying to pretend that he's in a title-contending car right now, but he sees a lot more potential in the ride than others do -- and he's excited about the opportunity to show that last weekend wasn't all about cheating and that his team is capable of considerably exceeding low expectations.

"Hopefully we can keep some of the momentum we built up last week in Atlanta going into Phoenix," Burton said. "It was good to be able to get the best finish of the year for the NetZero HiSpeed Racing team in our first race together, and it was definitely a team effort. It doesn't get too much worse on any given weekend than having to pull out the backup car and the guys did a great job getting it ready to go for the race. The whole weekend made me proud to be a part of this team and really excited about the future."

	Phoenix marks Burton's second race in the No. 0 car since climbing out of Bill Davis' No. 22 ride.

And he's excited about the present, which he believes will be a rebuilding effort toward the future.

"It's going to be good for me, working from where we started with this team," he said. "It's going to be good going from the ground up, being a part of this team's success. I'm excited to be working with Haas CNC Racing and NetZero, and about the support they have from Rick Hendrick's organization. I feel like, together with the concentrated effort and teamwork, we're going to work really hard and make this a successful program.

"This team has a lot of good people involved with it. Tony Furr is a proven, successful crew chief and Bill Ingle is back at the shop running things there. ... I think we can turn this into something that we can all be excited about and proud of, and put this team where it's supposed to be."

Of course, the team will be starting from scratch, literally, as Pontiac is leaving the sport. The team will run a Chevrolet next season, so the crew will have to build new bodies and the entire team is going to have to start compiling information on new cars.

"We recognize it was a business decision and appreciate everything Pontiac has done for us this year," Haas CNC general manager Joe Custer said. "Obviously the decision will result in some extra work in the off-season, but this kind of thing is just a part of racing. We've learned to expect the unexpected, and be ready for it. This thing is still pretty new and of course there are issues that remain to be worked out, but ... with leadership from Bill Ingle and Tony Furr back at the shop, I'm confident this will be a smooth transition and will be handled as efficiently as possible."

And Burton said him finishing this season with the team will help with the transition, too.

"I feel good that we are able to work the last four events of the season together before heading into next year," he said. "The opportunity for me to work with the team this year will really help the program heading into next season."

Rupen Fofaria is a freelance writer living in Chicago and a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at rfofaria@espnspecial.com.