Harrison Burton and the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team in Victory Lane at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, August 24, 2024. (Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Daytona International Speedway has always been known as a wild card track. Any driver, from a large organization like Hendrick Motorsports or a small, part-time team like Beard Motorsports, can find an opportunity to race for the win at some point, as the 200+ miles-per-hour high banks level the playing field for many. Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 proved no different and put on a fireworks display of massive wrecks, aggressive moves and a surprise, but much welcomed winner, Harrison Burton.
Following a series of unfortunate events for the majority of the NASCAR Cup Series field, Burton set himself up on the outside of the front row for the final restart of the night in overtime. He had his work cut out for him with a hungry, victory-deprived Kyle Busch to his inside. Busch had a great restart, cementing himself in front with two laps to go. Despite Busch carrying great speed on the bottom line, Burton’s No. 21 DEX Wood Brothers Racing Ford got a massive push from Xfinity Series regular, Parker Retzlaff, and shot out to a car-length lead over Busch on the backstretch.
Burton boldly blocked Busch’s attempts to swerve around him, nearly ending up in the frontstretch grass before crossing the finish line in the lead. Everyone held their breath as NASCAR reviewed the action just before the finish, confirming that contact with the No. 8 sent Burton over the double yellow line rather than an attempt to hold his position.
“I cried the whole victory lap,” Burton said to NBC Sports after climbing from his car. “I obviously got fired from this job and wanted to do everything for the Wood Brothers I could. They’ve given me an amazing opportunity in life and to give them the 100th [win] on my way out is amazing.”
“We’re in the playoffs now. Let’s go to Darlington and see what happens.”
Harrison Burton waiting to qualify for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on Friday, August 23, 2024. (Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)
The “win and you’re in” rule for the NASCAR playoffs has thrown a lot of surprises at fans and teams since its inception. Burton was sitting outside the top 20 in points coming into Daytona and with this win, he has catapulted himself into the 13th locked-in playoff spot. Bubba Wallace and Ross Chastain now sit 21 and 27 points below the cut line, respectively, with only Darlington left to set the playoff field of 16 drivers.
Runner-up finisher Busch will enter Darlington in an all-or-nothing scenario. Despite having consistent finishes recently, he still sits 106 points below the cut line. He has no choice but to win the Cook Out Southern 500 next weekend if he wants to make the playoffs.
“We ran good there [Darlington] the first time I ran with these guys early last year,” Busch explained to NBC Sports. “But earlier this year we struggled mightily. We’ll just have to go with hopefully a really good package that works, get our job done.”
“We win races here in Daytona going into the last restart but haven’t been able to pull off the victory. Not sure what I’m doing wrong or missing,” Busch said. “I wanted to get up in front of the 21 [Burton] because I knew the momentum was coming there but I knew the 20 [Christopher Bell] was a better friend. Just didn’t work out. As usual.”
Every lap of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 was a close quarters fight for position and points. (Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)
Destruction played a major role in the downfall of many drivers on Saturday. Lap 60 saw the first “Big One” of the night – a bad push from Corey Lajoie to Noah Gragson in the middle of the field collected playoff hopeful Ross Chastain, as well as the locked-in cars of Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin.
This was definitely not the only “Big One”, as cars went airborne in two separate incidents before the end of the night. In his fight for the lead with less than 10 laps to go, Michael McDowell was bumped by Austin Cindric, lifting him into the air and slamming the car back down. Right after the resulting restart, Josh Berry’s luck ran out as he was turned around while racing for the lead. The No. 4 ended up on its roof and smashed nose-first into the inside wall, coming to a halt upside down.
“I’m all good. Actually, it probably wasn’t as bad as it looked,” Berry said with a smile on his face. “But man, I’m bummed. We had a helluva night going. We were in position and really proud of the job I did tonight, and the team did tonight. We were in contention.”
Luckily, both McDowell and Berry climbed out of their cars and gave the crowd a thumbs-up. However, Berry’s incident called NASCAR’s engineering into question, as drivers still commented that cars should not be getting upside down like that, even after the implementation of an additional roof flap following Lajoie’s trip in the air at Michigan last Sunday.
Two drivers who were lucky enough to stay out of the crashes were Daniel Suarez and Shane van Gisbergen, but they both suffered massive mechanical failures. Van Gisbergen’s engine imploded, putting him out of contention for a good superspeedway result. Suarez’s car suffered a fire in the trunk during his first pit stop of the night, when Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota backfired in the pit stall behind him, igniting a trail of spilled fuel leading to the No. 99. His night was also cut short.
Shane van Gisbergen’s No. 16 Kaulig Racing WeatherTech Chevrolet suffered a massive engine failure in the Coke Zero Sugar 400. (Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)
Burton was one of only five drivers to avoid the carnage of the night’s over-400-mile race. He handed Wood Brothers Racing their 100th win – a historic victory for the team, NASCAR and Burton himself. After 40 lead changes and 16 different leaders, Burton led just one lap on his way to victory, the most important one of his career.
