In the 2004 off-season, Pontiac announced it was leaving the sport, forcing the team to switch back to Chevrolet. Burton began 2004 by finishing 17th at the Daytona 500 and then earned the team's first top-10 finish the next week with a 9th-place finish at Rockingham. The team was also 9th place in points. Despite top-20 finishes in two of the next three races, the team began to slip in points. After a streak of bad races, the team re-emerged at California with a 10th-place finish. The team racked up five straight top-20 finishes and Burton earned outside pole at the Brickyard 400, but made contact early in the race and finally crashed to a 39th-place finish. In October, Burton finished again in 10th place, this time at Talladega. After finishing 40th at Phoenix, Burton was released by Haas and was replaced by Mike Bliss. The 2002 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion took over and had an immediate impact finishing 10th at Darlington, leading Haas to sign him for the 2005 season.