(Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
If you take a look at the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoff standings, you’ll see the typical powerhouses — JR Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Kaulig Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing.
Then there’s Jordan Anderson Racing, an underfunded organization that fields two cars and has just 25 employees.
Back at Talladega Superspeedway in April, Jeb Burton got one of the JAR cars into the playoffs with an upset victory.
Sure, Burton won at Talladega with Kaulig Racing in 2021 — but that didn’t mean nearly as much as winning this year.
“It’s definitely bigger to win with this organization and build something around me and try to grow a program,” Burton said on Xfinity Series Playoff Media Day. “A lot of those guys have never won a race before and I was able to take a lot of those folks to Victory Lane, so that was pretty neat.
“In 2021, I would have pointed my way in, no problem, with or without the win. I think we had like [16] top 10s or something close to that. I mean, I was expected to win in [the Kaulig] car. I put the pressure on myself to do that.”
Burton has spent the last few seasons jumping around the Xfinity Series, but at least for now, has a home with JAR. Mainly due to funding issues, Burton left Kaulig after the 2021 season and went to Our Motorsports, running the No. 02 entry. He struggled, failing to record a top 10 and having a series of bad luck over the summer which included a wild flip at Pocono Raceway.
This year, he’s jumped into a car that regularly has speed. In addition to his victory, he has five top 10s and has regularly ran inside the top 15. His average finish sits at 14.4 with an average running position of 17.3 over the first 26 events.
Something he takes pride in is finishing races and bringing back clean race cars. Burton’s finished every race and has failed to complete just two laps — finishing one lap down at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the spring and Kansas Speedway last week. The only time he suffered significant damage this season was due to a mistake in the final corner of the race at Circuit of the Americas.
Jeb Burton qualifies his car at Darlington Raceway on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023. (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
“We’ve been doing a really good job of maximizing what we have right now and not tearing up cars,” Burton said. “We’re a small team, we’ve got 25 employees, so we can’t afford to wreck stuff every week. [I] just need to bring the car home in the tip 15 every week and keep working on it so we can make it better.
“We’re getting there. We just don’t have a full technical alliance with one of these big powerhouse teams and that’s what we’re racing against. It’s really just an old-school racer mentality, just hard work and racers working on the car, trying to make it the best we can and they believe 100% in me. That means a lot as a driver, too, that they’ve got my back. We’re just doing a lot with a little. If we can get a little bit more support, I feel like we could really do a lot.”
Understandably, Burton wants to go out and win every week but knows that’s not possible with the resources the team has. However, he isn’t ruling out the team’s ability to make a deep run in the playoffs. Burton believes his ability to run clean races and maximize each day favors the team’s chances of advancing out of the first round.
“The things that have hurt us is the speed during the first and the middle half of the race — not getting stage points,” Burton said. “If the car will go run first, then we’ll go run first. If it’ll run fifth, we need to run fifth. We just need to continue to do what we’re doing and finish races and get the best finish possible. Let others make mistakes.”
“I’m hoping we can take the 27 into the Round of 8, and then who knows what can happen after that. If you can make your way to Phoenix, all you got to do is outrun those three cars and you can win a championship. We’re gonna have to have some luck to make it there, but I’m gonna drive as hard as I can and my guys are gonna do the best we can and see where the chips fall.”
Burton opens up the playoffs seeded 10th, two points below the cutline. He’s confident about the playoff opener on Friday, Sept. 15 at Bristol Motor Speedway, calling it “an equalizer” to kick off the seven-race dash to the championship.
The race is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Noah Gragson is the defending winner.
