Harrison Burton, 23, edged out two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch in overtime last Saturday night in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at the NASCAR Cup Series in Daytona Beach, Florida, and claimed his first win in the most dramatic race of the season.
With his victory, Burton has secured his presence in Atlanta on September 8, at the start of the playoffs of the most important standard car series in the world. And if he continues to surprise, the young driver could be present at the Autodromo Internacional de Atlanta. Homestead-Miamion October 27, in the last race of the postseason before the grand finale in Phoenix, Arizona, on November 10.
Big crashes, jaw-dropping passes and, ultimately, one of the most memorable and popular wins of the year characterized a packed Coke Zero Sugar 400 on Daytona’s high banks that had a tremendous effect on NASCAR’s playoff prospects, with just one race remaining to decide which 16 drivers will advance to championship contention.
Burton got a big push down the stretch from first-time NASCAR Cup Series driver Parker Retzlaff, 21, allowing Burton’s No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford to get alongside him and ultimately race leader Busch, who stayed close to Burton’s bumper to the finish line but was unable to pass.
“Everyone works too hard not to have a chance,” Retzlaff told FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass. “I definitely didn’t want to push a Ford to win in a Chevy. But I knew I needed to get Harrison free to make it a race between him and me to get to the finish line. I had a little bit of front-end damage and my line broke down the stretch. I pushed him and my line broke and I didn’t have a chance to get away.”
Burton’s win was definitely an automatic ticket to the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs after not even being in the top 20 in points before the race. It was a very popular win for the young driver and many of his competitors came up to congratulate him on pit road and in victory lane.
The Wood brothers, who came to NASCAR in 1953, had been waiting to taste victory again since 2017 at Pocono and Burton right on time gave them number 100.
“This is what the sport is all about,” said Burton’s father, NBC Sports host and former NASCAR Cup Series standout Jeff Burton, after greeting his colleagues in the television booth, overcome with emotion at watching his son earn his first major race win.
Harrison Burton was equally thrilled, taking his win by a fraction of a second (0.047 seconds) over Busch.
“I cried the whole victory lap. Obviously I got fired from this job. I wanted to do everything I could for the Wood Brothers. They gave me an amazing opportunity in life. To get 100 points from them before I left is amazing. We’re halfway there now. Let’s go to Darlington and see what happens.
A race of many tests
The race at Daytona was a real mess, with 40 lead changes between 16 drivers, seven yellow flags and one red flag.
Kyle Busch finished second, ahead of Christopher Bell, Cody Ware, Ty Gibbs, Bubba Wallace, Retzlaff, Brad Keselowski, Daniel Hemric and Chris Buescher.
Other notable finishers on Saturday night included Ross Chastain in 12th, Kyle Larson in 21st, William Byron in 27th, Tyler Reddick in 28th and Denny Hamlin in 38th.
The Cup Series regular-season finale will be held next Sunday at Darlington at 6 p.m. ET and will air on USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
