WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — A decade ago, Jeff Burton chased Jeff Gordon for the victory at Watkins Glen International, trading paint with the four-time NASCAR Cup champion on the final lap but settling for second instead of wrecking Gordon on the last turn of the race.

Don’t expect Mr. Nice Guy behind the wheel when NASCAR goes road racing again on Sunday at the storied road course in the Finger Lakes of upstate New York.

“The last 10 laps of the races on road courses at almost every race, someone spins me out,” said Burton, who has struggled mightily this year and sits 24th in points with no top-10s in the first 21 races of the season. “After Sonoma this year, I decided that there’s a few of them that the next time I get to them I’m sending them around as quick as I get to them. That’s what continually happens to me, and it’s with the same people over and over. So, it’s not happening again.”

The Cup series races twice a year on road courses, in June at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., and in August at Watkins Glen. Both circuits have 11 turns but are so very different. Sonoma is about a half-mile shorter and more like a short track with tight racing, while The Glen’s 2.45-mile layout, with its sweeping turns and long straightaways, produces speeds that make it seem more like a superspeedway.

Burton has proven his mettle turning right and left in his 18-year career. In 35 NASCAR Sprint Cup road course starts, he has three top-five and nine top-10 finishes, including a ninth last year at The Glen.

“We did a nice job of having a fast car and not letting it get taken away from us,” he said. “That’s been our history on road courses — we run well and finish awful. Last year, we ran well and finished decent. That was big for us. That was a step in the right direction.

“We feel good about running road courses. If you go back and look at our average running position it’s pretty competitive, but if you look at the records, they’re horrendous.”

Mostly from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Burton was 25th at Sonoma this year, a race in which two-time series champion Tony Stewart intentionally wrecked Brian Vickers and then was knocked onto a stack of tires by Vickers later in the race.