(Photo: Sam Draiss | The Podium Finish)
For Harrison Burton, the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season has been admittedly difficult. Burton, in his first full-time Cup season, sits 29th in points and well below the playoff cutline.
But, last Sunday at Darlington Raceway, Burton saw a glimpse of success after the hard work up to this point. He finished 14th in the Goodyear 400, recording a career-best finish. He had finished 20th or worse in the previous four races.
“We had the speed at times to be a top-five car,” Burton said in a media availability Wednesday. “The finish number is not that exciting, but I think the speed we had was more exciting.”
Throughout the race, Burton competed with Denny Hamlin and eventual winner Joey Logano on speed. Although he didn’t earn any stage points, Burton remained in the mix throughout the afternoon.
“Looking at the lap time data, that was our strongest race, for sure, compared to the leaders,” Burton said. “We had one segment where we were kind of really good, and then tuned ourselves out of it some, so I think that was a big victory was to run with those guys, catch Denny, catch Joey.
“I think there’s been some growing pains there and I feel like now we’re getting rolling in the right direction, so I’m excited to get back to the racetrack and hopefully be in that spot to try and contend for wins and just take it one step at a time.
“It’s like the first time where I wasn’t uncomfortable in this race car, which is pretty wild.”
Burton had one of the cars to beat in February’s Daytona 500, but a crash at the end of Stage 1 send him flying upside down and out of the race. He also crashed at Auto Club a week later before recording his first top 20 at Las Vegas.
Burton also has finishes of 17th and 18th and Circuit of the Americas and Richmond, respectively, as well as 20th at Bristol Dirt. Before Darlington, he finished 34th at Talladega and 24th at Dover.
(Photo: Ryan Daley | The Podium Finish)
“It’s been a rough start to say the least,” Burton said. “We can’t do what we’ve been doing and expect to just pop off a win. We have to go to work and that’s what we’ve been doing and I’m really proud of that.”
Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas kicks off a stretch of three consecutive races at intermediate tracks. It’ll be just the third intermediate race of 2022.
Next weekend, the series heads to Texas Motor Speedway for All-Star weekend, where Burton will participate in the Open for a spot in the main show. Afterward, NASCAR stays home in Charlotte for the traditional Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend.
“The diversity of the schedule early has been, I think, good for the fans because they get to see a lot of different things and see how the Next Gen car performs,” Burton said. “It’s been really good for the teams because now we have a notebook of kind of every kind of racetrack that you could think of and we can go try to build off of that and show up off the truck closer than what we have been in the past.”
Regardless of the results, Burton’s enjoying the challenge of Cup Series racing.
“My love for this sport is higher than I think it’s ever been because I appreciate what Cup is all about,” he said. “I can never guarantee results, but I can guarantee what I will do before the race to try and be ready and our whole team is dedicated as ever to being good and we know that means work.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned is that I won’t quit. There’s nothing that I will never quit.”
Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET on FS1.
