DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. –– Prior to Saturday (Aug. 24), Wood Brothers Racing had 99 NASCAR Cup Series wins as a team, 14 of which came at the famed Daytona International Speedway.
While it does have five Daytona 500s, its bread-and-butter at Daytona is the summer race, in which it has won for a 10th time, thanks to one Harrison Burton.
In what could be the upset of the decade, Burton was able to deliver the team its 100th victory at the 2.5-mile superspeedway on Saturday night. It’s the 15th time the storied Wood Brothers have been to victory lane at ‘The World Center of Racing’. It’s also just the second time in history that the team finds itself competing in the playoffs.
Burton was able to charge past Kyle Busch on the final lap of an overtime restart to take the win, launching him from dead last in full-time points to the aforementioned playoff spot. He only led one lap en route to the victory, but it could be the most important lap of the 23-year-old’s life.
“I’ve struggled to put it into words,” Burton said. “The way the last three years have gone have not been the way I wanted to represent myself, the way I wanted to represent this team.”
For the Wood Brothers, the idea of win No. 100 has been easier said than done. Win No. 99 came at Pocono Raceway at the hands of Ryan Blaney way back on June 11, 2017. With the up-and-coming driver at the helm, win No. 100 didn’t seem that far away.
However, Blaney was brought fully into the Team Penske fold in 2018, and the team turned to Paul Menard to get that win. Menard couldn’t get there before he retired, and neither could Matt DiBenedetto, who replaced him.
In 2022, the team brought Burton up from the Xfinity Series to go along with the introduction of the Next Gen car. The duo started off on the wrong note by flipping in the Daytona 500. From there, the issues snowballed over the next three years, and it became apparent that the partnership was not going to culminate in victory.
On July 3, it was announced that Josh Berry would drive the No. 21 in 2025, leaving Burton without a ride for next year. The goal for the rest of the season became trying to get that 100th win. With the way the team has lacked speed, it was clear the only way Burton would get that was through a superspeedway race.
Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 became a race of attrition towards the end once a bunch of leaders crashed out with under 10 laps to go. After Berry…
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