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Rookie Cup driver Harrison Burton survived one of the most chaotic road course races to earn his first career-best finish on Sunday night at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after driving his #21 Dex Imaging Ford Mustang for the Wood Brothers to a top-five finish.
Burton finished fourth but advanced to third place after Ross Chastain was handed a penalty for using the access road at Turn 1 and ended up losing his runners-up position.
This was the first time that Harrison Burton scored a Cup finish above P10 and his second top-ten finish of the season after taking his first top-ten finish in Atlanta, where he finished P10. This also adds him to the short list of rookies to ever finish in the top five in the Cup race at Indy.
Burton admitted it wasn’t one of his best days despite taking a clean third-place finish. According to the 21-year-old, he had a bad execution when it came to the start of the race and his car was "all over the place." The young driver started the day in P13 but inched into a top-five finish.
In a post-race interview, he admitted he made a mistake. Harrison said:
“I made a mistake and got into Custer. I was spun out at one point. I was all over the place. It was a tough day for me and then got some new tires there before the last caution and started picking guys off and just got in a good place for those restarts. That was the big thing was being on the inside for those restarts and kind of plugging the middle and missing the chaos.”
Harrison Burton changed his tires before the final caution, which played a crucial role in his final lap success. However, he feels like they did their job later where it mattered, and the strategy ended up working for them. Turn 1 was a bit rough for everyone, and to avoid being bombed, Harrison placed his #21 Ford in the middle of other cars to avoid being wrecked.
Harrison Burton's road to NASCAR Cup Series
Before his promotion in 2022, Harrison Burton had a three-year-long successful stint at the Xfinity Series, racing for Joe Gibbs Racing, where he bagged four wins and still managed to contest for the championship. He made his Xfinity Series debut in 2019 but earned his first win in February 2020 at Auto Club Speedway.
In April 2021, he made his Cup Series debut after Gaunt Brothers Racing confirmed that Harrison Burton was going to race their #99 Toyota at Talladega. His debut made him the first driver born in 2000s to race in NASCAR’s top-tier series.
In July 2021, Wood Brothers Racing announced that Harrison Burton would be taking over the #21 Ford Mustang from Matt DiBenedetto in the 2022 season. Though his full-time debut at Daytona didn’t turn out to be what he expected after being sent airborne, Harrison is still pushing hard to establish his name on the track firmly.
