The learning curve is steeper, the races longer and the tracks more difficult, but Burton remains steadfast in his belief he will make his opportunity in the Cup series work.
Burton, the 21-year-old son of NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee Jeff Burton, is coming off a career-best finish of 14th last weekend at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, one of just four races this season on which he’s finished on the lead lap.
The consistently strong performance by he and his No. 21 Wood Brothers team on Sunday may only be a small victory, but it was an important step.
“It’s like the first time where I wasn’t uncomfortable in this race car, which is pretty wild when you think about it,” Burton said. “This is a hard race car to drive, which is great for our sport, I think.
“When you hit it right, it drives really well, so we had some notes to build off of now – things that I like, especially based off of that run, some changes that I like – and hopefully that can carry over.
“For me, it was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. I can finally go be aggressive in this car.’ And I hadn’t felt that yet and now I kind of feel like we’ll be able to replicate that and go get after it more.”
Harrison Burton, Wood Brothers Racing, Ford Mustang, Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota Camry, crash
Photo by: NASCAR Media
In his relatively short NASCAR career, Burton has enjoyed success and quickly moved up the ladder.
He won the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (now ARCA East) title in 2017, ran fulltime in Trucks in 2019 and ran two fulltime seasons in Xfinity (with four wins) before being tapped to drive the Wood Brothers’ iconic No. 21 Ford this year.
While Burton hasn’t finished worse than 12th in any fulltime NASCAR season up to this year, he currently sits 29th in the Cup Series standings.
“It’s been a rough start to say the least. Fourteenth-place is our best finish, so that’s not good. There’s no hiding that,” he said. “I think there’s been some growing pains…
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