Quiet Burton Makes Big Gains In Xfinity Playoff Opener

Harrison Burton (25) battles Austin Hill Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Jacob Seelman/Motorsports Hotspot photo)

BRISTOL, Tenn. – While it came down to the final regular season race to know if Harrison Burton and AM Racing would make the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs, Friday night’s postseason opener showed exactly what the single-car operation believed they could do if they got there.

Burton entered the Food City 300 three points below the cut line, second-to-last in the playoff seeding ahead of only Austin Hill. He left a remarkable fifth in points and nine ahead of the first man out.

But after qualifying seventh and racing consistently in the early laps, Burton and crew chief Danny Efland kept the No. 25 AirBox Ford Mustang Dark Horse on track after a caution late in stage one, ultimately grabbing eight vital stage points as part of a 38-point total haul.

Earning the sixth-most points on the night, the move played into AM Racing’s adjusted strategy after recognizing that stage points were a weakness for them prior to the playoffs.

“That was big and [lets] you build that little cushion,” Burton noted. “I mean, we had to recover [after that]. We knew stage two was going to be really, really hard to get stage points after the call we made, but we did the best we could at that point.

“I think we got to 14th from 23rd, but it’s so hard to pass here. I feel like we were a pretty good race car, and better than a lot of guys at the end … but just couldn’t get it done.”

Stage three could have seen Burton lose ground due to a wild incident ahead of him, where contact sent Taylor Gray’s No. 54 Toyota for a spin right in front of Burton’s No. 25.

Fortunately for Burton, he and everyone else were miraculously able to avoid Gray and escape any major contact, save for a light, glancing blow to the front end.

“I’d kind of already entered really hard to run the top, and [it’s] hard to slow down, and then with the [No.] 54 [Gray] I was fortunate to just have the hood and splitter a little bit messed up and not the whole front clip tore off it, so I’m thankful we got through that stuff,” Burton said. “I was fortunate on a few occasions and thankful I have a good spotter like Kevin Hamlin to keep me out of the chaos. As soon as they wrecked he was saying, ‘Check up’ and I was as much as I could slow down without crashing.”

“It was pretty fun to have a good car like that and go race with the best in the business.”

After late pit strategy shuffled the order slightly, Burton used fresher tires to get to seventh place, his ninth top-10 finish of the season.

It’s exactly the kind of run that could propel a championship push, combined with Burton’s playoff experience in the NASCAR Cup Series with Wood Brothers Racing from a year ago.

“Just experience matters so much in these situations,” he noted. “I’ve been there and done that in the Xfinity playoffs and the Cup playoffs before. My crew chief, Danny Efland, is the same way. He was a driver before he was a crew chief, so he gets it and he’s been on a lot of really, really good race teams, and we both kind of understand the moment.

“We understand to stay within ourselves and do the best we can, and the chips will fall where they will. I think just having been there, having been eliminated before, having advanced before [in the Xfinity Series], and living all that emotion is valuable.”

Even with all that said, however, Burton’s competitive fire isn’t satisfied. He and the team want more.

“I think we underachieved a little bit here, truthfully, which is awesome to say about a seventh-place finish. This is a huge, huge moment for our race team.”

Next in the Xfinity Series playoffs is the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway, with coverage airing Saturday, Sept. 27 at 4 p.m. ET on The CW, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.