To say Harrison Burton’s tenure within the NASCAR Cup Sequence has been tough can be an enormous understatement.
5 top-10 finishes and a greatest factors end of twenty seventh have been all Burton needed to present for his Cup Sequence profession by way of his first 97 begins, however that every one modified on Saturday at Daytona.
Burton lined up second for the race’s closing restart, and with two-time Cup Sequence champion Kyle Busch to his inside, he had a tall job in entrance of him if he needed to interrupt by way of for his first Cup Sequence win.
Hollywood could not have scripted it any higher: With a push from Parker Retzlaff on the ultimate lap, Burton charged in entrance of Busch and held on to assert his first Cup Sequence victory.
It is poetic that Burton’s Cup Sequence profession started with a flip at Daytona in 2022, and now, the primary chapter of it should finish with a victory on the similar monitor. After all, there are nonetheless 11 races — together with a possible playoff run — remaining for Burton, however with Josh Berry already confirmed to be driving the No. 21 automobile in 2025, Burton remains to be on the hunt for a brand new trip.
One win at a superspeedway would not take away from an absence of total outcomes, nevertheless it does show that Burton does have an asset that is important in modern-day NASCAR: having the ability to win beneath stress when the chips are down.
Burton’s victory now offers him an opportunity to make a Cinderella championship run, nevertheless it additionally marks the a centesimal win for the storied Wooden Brothers. Most significantly, maybe, it ensures a payout of at the very least $3M for the workforce over the subsequent three years, permitting the workforce’s executives to chill out barely in regards to the workforce’s monetary state of affairs.
Burton might have practically run out of time with the Wooden Brothers, however at simply 23 years previous, there’s loads of time for Burton to regroup and start a brand new chapter of his NASCAR profession.
Along with his win on Saturday night time, it simply turned much more doubtless that the plot of that new chapter will happen within the Cup Sequence, the place it appears — in the meanwhile, at the very least — the second-generation driver belongs.
