Harrison Burton put on one of his strongest showings this season, scoring a tumultuous fifth-place run at Iowa Speedway. (Photo Credit: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
NEWTON, Iowa – The battle is heating up between the Burton cousins of Jeb and Harrison for the final spot for the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs, as Harrison protected himself with a fifth-place finish in Saturday afternoon’s Hy-Vee Perks 250 at Iowa Speedway.
The finish only marks the second time that Burton has scored a top 5 this season, as his previous finish of third at Rockingham Speedway in April has the driver of the No. 25 Ford Mustang for AM Racing pointed in the right direction for the final four regular season races.
Burton began his strong day by rolling off the hauler with the second-quickest lap in practice, followed by a 17th-place qualifying effort for the 250-lap Saturday showdown. Burton picked off the field one by one, scoring much-needed stage points by finishing ninth and eighth in both stages, respectively.
He showcased his pace during the final restart with 17 laps remaining, as Burton was engaged in a close fight with Jesse Love for the second position. However, he ultimately faded to fifth place by the time the checkered flag was waved.
Burton’s performance moved him to 12th place in the provisional playoff standings, putting him 17 points ahead of Ryan Sieg. Both drivers surpassed Harrison’s cousin, Jeb, who entered the race with a 10-point lead over Harrison for the final provisional spot in the 12-driver playoff field. Unfortunately, Jeb’s No. 27 Chevrolet for Jordan Anderson Racing struggled during qualifying and was unable to gain speed throughout the race, resulting in a 29th-place finish, one lap down. This performance left him 19 points behind the postseason cutoff, sitting at 19 points out with four regular-season races remaining.
Christian Eckes (pictured left) walking with Harrison Burton (pictured right) down the frontstretch of Iowa Speedway ahead of qualifying for the 2025 Hy-Vee Perks 250. (Photo Credit: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
“I fired off well,” Burton said in a post-race interview with The CW Network. “I could get aggressive, go three-wide kind of at the end there and make that work, but I kind of fell off as a subsequent cost of that. That was kind of our story all day. I had to manage our car a lot, keep the right-front tire on it all day, and, man, it’s rewarding.”
Climbing above the playoff cutline isn’t the goal for Burton, as two road courses and a superspeedway still loom ahead, where a new winner that is full-time in points can jump right into the fray, which could hinder Burton’s chances of giving AM Racing its first playoff birth in the team’s young history on the Xfinity Series circuit.
There’s a lot of racing left to go, so we have to just stay status quo and stay hungry,” Burton added. “There are all kinds of things that could happen where the cutline could get moved. We have to go try and win one of these things, and it’s nice to be getting closer, but we just have to keep pushing.”
Burton carries on with his push to make the playoffs in his first full-time Xfinity Series campaign since 2021, when the series ventures out to the historic seven-turn, 2.45-mile road course at Watkins Glen International in New York next Saturday.
Coverage of The Mission Foods 200 will air live at 3:00 p.m. ET on The CW, with radio coverage provided by The Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
