Harrison Burton doesn’t let a bit of rain get him down. (Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
Harrison Burton is determined to add to the rich, building history of his family’s name in the world of NASCAR. Although it has not been easy times for the 22-year-old Huntersville, North Carolinian, he remains determined to right the ship of his No. 21 Motorcraft/DEX Imaging Ford Mustang fielded by the Wood Brothers Racing team.
Burton can understand the volatile ups and downs of stock car competition. After all, along with his cousin Jeb, this second generation driver grew up watching his father, Jeff, and uncle, Ward, duke it out in the premier level of NASCAR.
Certainly, Burton can take comfort knowing how his father had some growing pains acclimating to the NASCAR Cup Series with points finishes of 24th and 32nd in 1994 and 1995. Eventually, things turned around with points finishes of 13th, fourth, fifth, fifth, and third from 1996 to 2000.
Last Sunday, Burton was in contention to tally his first Cup victory before getting swept up in a late race, Turn 2 accident. By all means, it was a frustrating moment for the talented racer, but he showcased his prowess by leading 11 laps, a familiar sight for the No. 21 car at Talladega Superspeedway.
Savvy, resourceful and tenacious, Burton has an old school racer’s heart in today’s new wave era of NASCAR. He is the first to credit his team and those around him in terms of successes and the first to work on improving his approach and mindset after a tough moment.
Sooner or later, Burton will have his breakthrough moment in the Cup ranks. The 2017 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, now ARCA Menards Series East division, champion can get the most out of a racecar while honing his craft and focus in the top level of stock car racing.
Earlier in the season, I caught up with Burton to talk about his upcoming, sophomore full-time efforts in Cup. It is evident how passionate and serious Burton is with getting the No. 21 team back on track along with proving himself as a bonafide Cup competitor.
Without further ado, here’s “In the Hot Seat: Harrison Burton” here on The Podium Finish!
Rob Tiongson : Qualifying was a huge thing that you excelled with, and it seemed like you found your footing late last year. What are some of the things you’re going to apply as a driver that you’re looking to apply this year in terms like, “Okay, this worked in terms of my approach. Here’s what I’m going to improve upon when I get to a certain track”?
Burton has what it takes to be a leading contender with the right breaks in the Cup ranks. (Photo: Riley Thompson | The Podium Finish)
Harrison Burton : Yeah. I think it’s trust in the car. This car gives you some weird feelings and some weird things that you don’t really know what it means, right? You hit the limiters, and sometimes… there’s shock limiters now, and they’re really like a hard stop, right? Your car doesn’t travel anymore. When you hit those, you lose a lot of grip really fast, sometimes. And then other times, you hit it and it’s really no big deal. So just trusting the car was big for me in qualifying and carrying a lot of entry speed. Just getting back to the basics of attacking the car.
You can overcomplicate this as much as you want. But normally, if you’re driving really hard, you’re going to probably be fast. So for me, just getting back to the basics of racing, and that’s having aggression. That’s wanting to drive in deeper than your competitors and get on the gas sooner. And as dumb as that sounds, it’s hard to do. It’s hard to think of it that way, right? This is such a complicated car. There’s so many little tips and tricks that you can do as a driver to keep the diffuser in the race track the right way, and keep the attitude of the car right. And you can really drown yourself in those thoughts, or you can just go and attack this car and drive it hard and make stuff happen.
So I think kind of finding the mixture of those two where, in the race, you’re going to have to do all those techniques and make the long run work and do all these certain things. But in qualifying, it’s time to go. So yeah, I think it’s important that we continue that qualifying effort early, and that aggression early.
Tiongson : And I think the other thing, too, is that you got more seat time with this Cup car versus last year, where you were fresh off the Xfinity car, and obviously, those two vehicles are quite different. What are the main differences, really, from the driver’s standpoint with the Cup and Xfinity car that you think has to be a big learning point for you to excel in Cup?
Burton : Yeah, I think the biggest thing is the addition of a diffuser on the Cup car, which is an aerodynamic piece underneath the car that kind of sucks the back of the car to the race track. Before, you only had overbody aerodynamic parts on the Xfinity car, right? So your splitter, your spoiler, whatever it might be. And you could control the attitude of your car knowing that, right? So if you put the nose down and the tail up, that was a good thing.
Well, now if you have the tail up of the racecar, you are going to be so loose, you can’t really handle it because you’re going to lose the suction to the ground, basically, with your diffuser. So as a driver, that’s the biggest difference, right, is you’ll see these cars in Xfinity that don’t have that big carbon fiber piece sticking out of the back of it. And it really doesn’t look like it would do much, but that changes the whole way we drive these cars, the whole way we set up these racecars.
It’s all predicated around the diffuser and trying to maintain, not only rear downforce with that, but not overpower the front to where you have no relative front grip to your rear grip, and then you’re going to slide the front tires. So I think that balance of car positioning and aerodynamic kind of balance is so different in this car, and it’s a way different feel than what the Xfinity guys will be used to, for sure.
Tiongson : That’s a great description and a great breakdown for those who have never driven these cars just to understand how difficult and how powerful it is to be driving either vehicle. So I really appreciate you walking us through that.
Now this year is the 75th anniversary for NASCAR. I know you want to go and get your first Cup win, get into the Playoffs, but let me ask you, from a historical standpoint, how special will it be to be driving for the famed Wood Brothers car, again, in this special anniversary season?
Perhaps Burton’s going old school with his looks for a team that’s genuinely embedded with NASCAR’s roots. (Photo: Riley Thompson | The Podium Finish)
Burton : Yeah. I mean, just driving that car is amazing no matter what the year is. And then I’ve got a beanie on that’s got a convertible on it, right, and that’s how long they’ve been around. They raced convertibles before, right? So it’s something I have a lot of pride in is racing for them and that family, and to do it in the 75th year of NASCAR, which is obviously something I care a lot about as the sport that I fell in love with, is really, really cool.
I think that there’s no team that I would rather drive for than this 21 team, and so I’m excited to try and get that kind of ball rolling. And if we can get their 100th win in the 75th year of NASCAR, I mean, just imagine the story that would be. So that’s the goal. That’s what we’re working for every day, and excited to go try and make it happen.
Tiongson : That would be really special and a really sentimental moment, which, the Wood Brothers and big time races and milestones are no strangers to each other.
Now kind of taking it off track a little bit, I know that this is kind of a unique season for you as a Duke basketball fan without Coach Krzyzewski, “Coach K.” How has it been like to watch your favorite team during this rather strange but new era of their program?
Burton : I thought they hired the right guy for that. And I don’t know the coaches at all, but I only judge based off the players’ reaction, and the players that were there, I follow a lot of them on social media or whatever, and they were all really excited when they announced the new head coach for Duke.
Obviously, this year hasn’t been as good as Duke wants to be normally, but that’s college basketball. It comes and goes. So yeah, it’s weird. Coach K was the man, especially when I was a little kid. I thought he just was the basketball god, more or less, right?
So not seeing him coach is strange, but he deserves retirement. That’s for sure. He worked hard for a really long time.
Tiongson : I think that’s the memories that will last a lifelong time for folks like you, your dad, and anyone who’s been a fan of Duke basketball. And I’m sure… do you follow some of the Duke players who are now in the NBA and see what they’re doing in the big time leagues?
Burton : Oh, yeah, yeah. I’m a big Hornets fan as well, so when guys like Zion Williamson or Jayson Tatum, the superstars, Kyrie (Irving) as well, a bunch of superstars that came from Duke, I’m always kind of excited that they’re… I’ll either watch them when they play the Hornets, or maybe even go to the stadium.
I’m always kind of rooting for them a little bit still, just because they used to play for Duke. So it’s cool to see the old stars from Duke in the NBA for sure, because you feel like you’ve watched them for a really long time.
Tiongson : I like that answer, because I’m a Boston Celtics fan, so…
Burton : There you go.
Tiongson : Us having Jayson Tatum, man, I’ll tell you, he is amazing to watch on the court.
Burton : Yeah. He’s a beast.
Tiongson : Now kind of going back to shop talk a little bit before we get to the last few questions. I know you may not be aware of some of the changes that have happened to this year’s Ford Mustang on the Cup side, but obviously, safety was a big thing that went into late last year, into this season, and also performances, too.
So I mean, how thrilled are you to take this year’s version of the Mustang on the track with a little bit more safety in mind, and some of the enhancements made to the Ford Mustang?
Like his father, Jeff, the second generation Burton cares a great deal about safety in auto racing. (Photo: Riley Thompson | The Podium Finish)
Burton : Yeah. It’s been good to see. There was some injuries and stuff, more than what we’re used to, right? We’re really fortunate we race in the era we do, because a long time ago, this would have been a down year for injuries, right? So obviously, keeping that in mind. But also, NASCAR is not really willing to just say, “Hey, it’s good enough,” and they’re making the car safer.
I feel good about that. I feel like we’re going in the right direction, making the right changes to the car on the safety side of things. And then the Phoenix test, recently, with NASCAR willing to try different things to make the package better for the fans and for us to drive.
I think, for me, just the willingness to work on things to get better is… for me as a person, if you show the effort that you’re putting the work in to make whatever it is that you care about better, then you have my respect. So on the NASCAR side of things, that’s been good.
And on the Ford side of things, it’s been awesome as well. They’re working really hard to make these Mustangs faster for us to go drive and win races with. Everyone’s rowing the boat in the same direction, so to speak. So that’s a good thing.
Tiongson : Always good to have a good-looking car, but it’s even better when that good-looking car has all the strength and muscle to be a front-running contender. So, super excited to see what’s going to happen on that front.
Now for my penultimate question, I hope I haven’t asked this before, but what song would you say best describes who you are as a person or as a driver who’s on the aggressive approach, trying to get your way to the front?
Burton : I don’t know. That’s a good question. I’d think the Rocky theme song or something like that would be good, because there’s parts of the year where we got beat down last year, but we’re still fighting. So that’s a good one.
Tiongson : As long as you don’t get a black eye, and you don’t have to yell…
Burton : Yeah, exactly. No “Adrian” yelling for me. But we’ll be good.
Tiongson : I’m sure Taylor and Ryan are going to be watching that for sure this year. No, I’m just kidding about that.
Racecar drivers are used to seeing their merchandise, their hats, their t-shirts, beanies, like you’re wearing. But diecast cars and NASCAR go hand-in-hand. I’m sure, as a little boy, you had your father’s Exide and Citgo cars, growing up. And now you’re the one with your No. 21 cars in retail stores or at the race track.
How does it feel when you see your day job in diecast form, and does it sometimes take you aback knowing that you are achieving what you’ve been dreaming about doing since you were a little kid?
Perhaps Burton will add to a magical 75th NASCAR anniversary season by capturing his first career Cup win. (Photo: Riley Thompson | The Podium Finish)
Burton : Yeah, it’s pretty neat. I’ve got some diecast cars from my dad from when I was a dad. I actually have a lot of them, obviously. But I’ve got some in my house now that are in my office, and then I’ve got my Wood Brothers, a couple of them, Wood Brothers diecast signed by all the Wood family. And then I have the throwback to my dad that he signed, as well.
So I’ve got some cool stuff like that where I’ve got like the old Bruce Lee car my dad drove, which not a lot of people know about that, or just so on and so forth. All these cars that I grew up wanting to drive. And then the ones I do drive now, and then signed by some of my heroes like the Wood family and my dad, is pretty cool. So in my office, there’s a little diecast collection sitting on the desk, and yeah, I’ve got a couple of my own on there, which is pretty neat, for sure.
Tiongson : That’s awesome. I certainly remember the Bruce Lee car back in 1998 at Twin Ring Motegi. I’m a bit of an old fart compared to you and everyone in the world of NASCAR these days, but that was a good, cool car. It’ll be cool to see what this year’s throwback will be once it’s revealed. So keep us posted on that.
Burton : Yeah, I’m excited for it. Will do.
Tiongson : I am too. Keep us posted. And did you want to say anything else to the fans before we wrap things up?
Burton : No, just thanks for the support of me and of the Wood Brothers. I think we’re going to make y’all proud this year. I feel good about it.
Editor’s Notes
Special thanks to Harrison for taking the time earlier this season to talk with us! Also, thanks to Taylor Smith and the Team Penske and Wood Brothers Racing teams for making this interview possible.
Be sure to keep updated on Harrison on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter along with here on TPF!
