FORT WORTH, Texas -- Michael McDowell certainly has no interest in making enemies on the track, particularly after his Sprint Cup debut. So when he found out Jeff Burton was upset with the 23-year-old rookie after Martinsville, McDowell immediately wanted to smooth things over.

Unfortunately, McDowell compounded his mistake by referring to Burton, who made his Cup debut when McDowell was 9, in formal tense.

"I tried to find Mr. Burton on Sunday," McDowell said. "Obviously, he was pretty upset. I wanted to talk to him and let him know from my perspective. I definitely wasn't trying to ruin his day at all. ... At that particular moment, when I was racing him hard, we were the Lucky Dog. Had the yellow come out with 15-20 [laps] to go there, we would have been on the lead lap."

One hard hit

Michael McDowell walked away from what some called the hardest hit they've seen on a racetrack during Friday's qualifying session at Texas.

• Complete story, click here
• Watch McDowell's crash

Burton appreciated McDowell's candor, if not his politeness (watch video).

"We had a great conversation," Burton said. "I didn't know whether to feel good about it or be mad about him calling me 'Mr. Burton.' I wanted to tell him, 'You don't have to call me Mr. Burton. It's making me feel real bad.'

"I should have called him Monday morning, rather than expressing my opinion after the race. I probably did that wrong. I think he understands now a little bit more about etiquette in a Cup race. I thought he made a mistake at the end of the race, but I thought he did a really good job Sunday."

McDowell said his mind was focused on trying to get back on the lead lap and not lose ground to other cars fighting for a guaranteed starting spot. But after his talk with Burton, he understood more about what he might have done differently at a track notoriously difficult for first-time drivers.

"I talked to Jeff about that, he understood," McDowell said. "Obviously, he was upset that I held him up and I should have probably given it to him a couple of laps earlier and shouldn't have raced him that hard. I definitely felt a lot better after talking to him.

"It's tough, because you go out there and run as hard as you can all day long. Everyone says you ride around for 400 laps and you race 100, but if that's what they were doing, I was mistaken because I was running 500 laps as hard as I ever did."

Burton said McDowell was receptive to the advice, which bodes well for a driver who hopes to be racing at this level for many years.

"Racing for the Lucky Dog is a difficult situation, and I respect the position that he was in," Burton said. "I understand that position. At the same time, it gave me an opportunity to explain to him that these are long races and when there is a race for the lead, you've got to go out of your way to make sure you're not in that."

McDowell realizes that his situation is somewhat unique. His career path began with go-kart, formula open-wheel machines and sports cars -- and his transition to NASCAR has only been under way since the end of the 2006 season, when he ran a handful of ARCA events.

He took over the No. 00 Toyota ride for the first time last weekend when David Reutimann replaced the retiring Dale Jarrett in the No. 44.

"I'm kind of like the new kid that comes into school in mid-season, so it's tough to make friends," McDowell said. "I lean on Michael, obviously a lot. David Reutimann is a great mentor because he was in this position last year. It is tough, because I don't have that Nationwide experience, that Truck experience to build upon. And I'm sure a lot of these guys have never heard of me at all. It's tough to go and build relationships, but it's something I'm working on."

Martinsville was a learning experience in many ways for McDowell, who was competitive all day -- and was in line for the free pass when he and Jamie McMurray made contact late in the race. The resulting spin cost McDowell two laps and a top-20 finish.

"It's hard to get out of the way on a short track, especially when we were running 18th, the first car a lap down," McDowell said. "I kind of felt like we got beat up this week and maybe we were deserving of that, but I don't think it takes away from how well we ran all day. Definitely I'll live and learn, and try to get on their good side and make as many friends as I can.

"I didn't leave there saying, 'Well, screw that guy. I don't care.' I do care. I want to be here for a long time and I have a lot of respect for all these guys. You have to earn your respect, and last weekend I didn't. But I'm going to do my best to get that back."

McDowell destroyed his primary car in qualifying, flipping at least eight times after losing control (watch video | read more). But he walked away from the accident and expects to continue the learning process in Sunday's Samsung 500, which includes being a considerate driver.

"Obviously, we're not a position now where we can afford to make anybody upset," McDowell said. "We'll go out there and be smart. But I think we have a good racecar. I'd love to stay on the lead lap. That's a big accomplishment here in this series. We know there's going to be a lot of green-flag runs. We need to get a top-25, top-20 to make sure we keep the points going solidly."