To say Harrison Burton’s tenure within the NASCAR Cup Sequence has been tough could 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 his first 97 begins, however that each one modified on Saturday at Daytona.
Burton lined up second for the race’s last restart, and with two-time Cup Sequence champion Kyle Busch to his inside, he had a tall process in entrance of him if he wished to interrupt by 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 say 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 is going to finish with a victory on the identical 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 automotive in 2025, Burton remains to be on the hunt for a brand new journey.
One win at a superspeedway would not take away from a scarcity of general outcomes, but it surely does show that Burton does have an asset that is vital in modern-day NASCAR: having the ability to win below strain when the chips are down.
Burton’s victory now provides him an opportunity to make a Cinderella championship run, but it surely additionally marks the one centesimal win for the storied Wooden Brothers. Most significantly, maybe, it ensures a payout of a minimum of $3M for the workforce over the following three years, permitting the workforce’s executives to calm down barely in regards to the workforce’s monetary scenario.
Burton could 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.
Together 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 intervening time, a minimum of — the second-generation driver belongs.