At the end of perhaps the most disappointing day of his professional racing career, Harrison Burton was able to graciously accept the decision made by his current Wood Brothers Racing team to acquire Josh Berry as the driver of the No. 21 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.
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At 4:38 PM ET, Burton issued a statement via a video on his social media channels, where he addressed the news that he will not return to the Wood Brothers Racing team next season after three full-time years at the helm of that ride. While Burton, 23, says that Wednesday’s news isn’t the news that any race car driver ever wants, he understands the business and why the move had to be made.
Tough news, but we don’t quit! Let’s have a good weekend in Chicago. Thanks for the support. pic.twitter.com/Gw1XPTHA63
— Harrison Burton (@HBurtonRacing) July 3, 2024
“Obviously, never good news, and never news you want to hear as a race car driver. But at the end of the day, that’s the way this business works,” Burton explained. “We need to put that behind us. We still have a great opportunity to go try to get the Wood Brothers their 100th win this season. They’ve been really good to me and my family, still have been over these last few weeks, obviously with all of the stuff developing. Our team is as motivated as ever to try to get them win number 100, and I’m on that same boat. We’re still full-steam ahead and pushing, and trying everything we could.”
Burton says the No. 21 team was in the midst of a team meeting at their shop going over the plan for this weekend’s event at the Chicago Street Course just before the press conference began at the Ford Performance Technical Center. Burton reiterated that even though he’s not returning to the team in 2025, he holds no ill-will toward the team.
“Even kind of as that announcement was going live, we were in a meeting at the shop talking about Chicago. So, definitely full-steam ahead still. Working hard. Trying to make the best out of the opportunity that we have, and then whatever comes in the future, can just move on and keep going. Still have a great relationship with those guys and everything they’ve done for me,” Burton stated.
Burton ended the video on a fired-up note as he vowed to do everything in his power to put the best effort on the track in the final 17 races of the season, and that he is hopeful about his future plans beyond this year.
“At the end of the day, that’s business, that’s how it goes. This is not an excuse for us to lay down and die. We’re going to go down swinging. Excited for the future, and excited for how all of this stuff turns out. And everything happens for a reason, so, excited to see where we go.”
Burton, the son of former NASCAR Cup Series star Jeff Burton, won four NASCAR Xfinity Series races in 2020, and finished eighth in the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship standings in back-to-back seasons prior to moving to the Wood Brothers Racing team in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2022.
In the two and a half seasons since joining the Wood Brothers as the driver of the No. 21 Ford Mustang, Burton has recorded one top-five finish and five top-10s. Unfortunately, the driver’s average finish, and points ranking has steadily declined with each passing season.
Burton and his team will look to finish the season off strong, and they all have reason to want to do so. Burton is looking for his next driving gig, and the No. 21 team would like to kick the 2025 season off with a little bit of momentum under their belts.
