Throughout Harrison Burton’s first two seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series, the driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford Mustang has had a couple of fleeting bright spots on the track, but for the most part the 23-year-old racer had been an afterthought as he recorded point rankings of 27th and 31st in 2022 and 2023.
With two races remaining in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series regular season, it looked like Burton’s tenure with the team was set to end with much more of the same as he sat 34th in the championship standings heading into the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Then, he and his No. 21 team did the unthinkable. They scored a stirring victory over Kyle Busch on the final lap of that race.
Instantly, a season to forget became one to remember for Burton and the Wood Brothers as the young racer’s first win equaled the 100th all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory for the legendary race team. With a win in his back pocket, and a clean slate allowing him to chase a championship, Burton says he will benefit from additional manufacturer support as a Round of 16 competitor.
“Yeah, definitely. I think so. Every time you get a win or you’re in the Playoffs, all of a sudden you become a bigger priority, right,” Burton said to TobyChristie.com at NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Media Day. “The last few years I wasn’t in the Playoffs, I remember you’re not – and this is how it should be – you’re not as big of a priority going to Phoenix. The Ford support is behind the 12 and 22 because they have a chance to win the championship. And we have a Ford meeting about what we can do to help, and whatnot. And now hopefully we can be on the other side of that. Because I think throughout my career, I’ve done a good job and my race team has done a good job of helping people when the time is right, and now that we’re the ones that might need the help, I hope it comes the other way too.”
Ford Performance, with six cars in the 16-car NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, has the most representation of the Playoff field among the three manufacturers. The Ford surge came on the strength of improved performance after an early-season slump after teams adjusted to the new Mustang Dark Horse body.
Now, being one of the six carrying the banner for the blue oval in the Playoffs, Burton hopes he can find himself receiving more respect on track from his manufacturer teammates in the Playoffs, than he may have experienced in years past when he was not a part of the championship fight.
“It’s just complicated because they’re all racing for their own race too. It makes it really hard to ask for help, or don’t want anyone to race you differently, but then you also hope they give you the same respect you’ve given in the past,” Burton explained.
If Burton is going to make an unexpected trip to a championship in his final season with the Wood Brothers Racing team, a crucial piece of that puzzle will be how he competes in the Round of 16 of the Playoffs. Burton feels the round, especially this weekend’s race at Atlanta, and Bristol in two weeks, is a favorable one for his driving style.
“I think Atlanta and Bristol are really big opportunities for us,” Burton explained. “I think my road course racing has been getting better, I think it’s something I need to continue to work on, and I think Watkins Glen is going to be a really big test for that with the pressure on. So, I’m excited for that challenge as well. So, I see the bookends of the round being huge opportunities for us that we have to take advantage of.”
While this is Burton’s first appearance in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, the driver is doing his best to stay grounded heading into Sunday’s Quaker State 400. He plans to take the Playoff races as they come, and he vows not to, “build it up,” too much in his head. Burton says lessons learned in his two Playoff runs in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2020 and 2021 have at least helped him prepare somewhat for the mental toll the Playoffs can put on a driver.
“I think I learned a lot of lessons in those of kind of doing what I said, making it a big deal,” Burton stated. “I remember in my first year, right, we’d get in the Playoffs, and we’d struggle, don’t do very well, I’d get knocked out of the Playoffs and then win two races in a row right after we got knocked out of the Playoffs, which would have got us to Phoenix. It’s like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ It’s just crazy how that all worked out and what all could have happened, right? You just don’t get chances, like I thought in those years in Xfinity I thought I had real chances to win championships, you don’t get those very often. I think I learned a lot from that and I think I can take that into this year in Cup and now that, you look at the points, we’re right on the cutline. It’s a whole new season for us. Everything that happened beforehand doesn’t matter, and we’re just going forward from here. Hopefully, it’s going to be a new look No. 21 car. So, we’re excited for that.”
The Wood Brothers Racing team and Burton have heard people question the validity of their Playoff berth due to being outside of the top 30 in the championship standings at the end of the regular season. The team has been labeled as an underdog team that shouldn’t advance from the Round of 16 by many. While it’s harsh criticism, Burton feels it’s fair considering how the majority of the season has gone.
“If I was not a part of this team, I would say the same thing,” Burton admitted. “You can’t help but look at where we were in points, look at how our season had gone, look at the fact that I was on the way out of my job. They were making changes because the performance wasn’t there. And I love them, they love me as a person, but we didn’t perform the way we needed to do. But now we have this great opportunity to reset all of that. We have a great opportunity to kind of be born again. It’s like, okay, whole new season right here, let’s go. That is a rare opportunity in sports, a rare opportunity in life, really, to get to do that. I’m going to make the most of that. I know my race team is making the most of it.”
Burton’s win at Daytona flipped the script on his entire season, and now the driver will look to do the unthinkable once again, he’ll look to win a NASCAR Cup Series championship. While it’s not probable that Burton will hoist the Bill France Cup at Phoenix Raceway, it’s certainly not impossible. And if it does happen, the journey will begin in Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
