NASCAR takeaways: Harrison Burton pulls off epic upset at Daytona to make playoffs-ZoomTech News

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Harrison Burton, who probably had simply 12 races left in his NASCAR Cup Sequence profession, pulled off an epic upset Saturday night time as he captured the victory at Daytona Worldwide Speedway to vault from thirty fourth within the standings into the 2024 playoffs.

Having identified for months that he wouldn’t return to the Wooden Brothers Racing No. 21 automobile following this 12 months, Burton prevented the main wrecks that took out a number of contenders, acquired a push from Parker Retzlaff on the proper time after which threw a block on Kyle Busch on the ultimate lap for the victory.

Burton would not know the place he’ll race subsequent 12 months however is aware of that he could have a Cup win on his resume and earned the one centesimal victory for Wooden Brothers Racing, which has been racing in NASCAR going again to 1950.

“I cried for the entire cool-down lap,” Burton mentioned. “It is simply been the toughest three years of my life.  There is no denying.  It is simply been tough and these guys have rallied behind me when it issues probably the most.”

The win threw the NASCAR Cup Sequence playoff area into chaos because the two-time Cup champion Busch stays amongst these in a must-win state of affairs going into the regular-season finale subsequent Sunday at Darington Raceway.

Busch completed second with Christopher Bell third, Cody Ware fourth and Ty Gibbs fifth.

Burton Enormous Upset

Burton had just one top-5 and 5 top-10s within the first 97 Cup races of his profession. So it wasn’t like he had numerous expertise racing for the win in Cup earlier than going into the time beyond regulation restart on the entrance row.

“I have been actually lucky and received numerous races after I was youthful,” Burton mentioned. “You simply should depend on the movie you’ve got watched, depend on the conditions you’ve got been in.”

The 23-year-old son of former Cup driver and present NBC analyst Jeff Burton mentioned he’s cherishing the chance he has to race in Cup regardless of the struggles.

“You by no means know when you’ve gotten an opportunity to drive once more,” Burton mentioned. “I’ve had an opportunity to try this for 3 years, to work with these guys [at the Wood Brothers] for 3 years. … When the chips are down, we did a very good job.”

Berry, McDowell Get Airborne

In two wild accidents within the waning laps, Josh Berry slid a number of hundred ft on his roof and slammed onerous into an inside wall. That crash got here a handful of laps after Michael McDowell acquired turned from contact with Austin Cindric and his automobile acquired perpendicular to the bottom earlier than coming again down on his wheels.

Each drivers have been unhurt.

Berry slid in an space that was paved final 12 months after Ryan Preece’s wild flip. 

“Sadly, I simply acquired rotated,” Berry mentioned. “The automobile lifted up and slid on its roof.

“The paving job did its job in comparison with what we noticed final 12 months. … it was only a bizarre angle [into the wall]. I feel the automobile crushed fairly good as a result of it was upside-down. The automobile did its job. I really feel OK. Simply dissatisfied as a result of I actually thought I might win that factor.”

Each drivers indicated it’s simply the character of the fashion of racing at Daytona, the place NASCAR should restrict the horsepower generated to maintain the automobile from getting airborne with out contact, so the automobiles race in a giant pack with little time to react.

“It was going over,” McDowell mentioned. “I had my eyes closed, however whoever hit me it felt prefer it set me again down as a result of I had that second the place it acquired actual mild and it acquired actual quiet after which I acquired hit after which I used to be again on the bottom. … It is the tip of a Daytona race and these items occur.

“Everyone is pushing onerous and we had guys up there that needed to win, so you understand all people goes to go for it.”

Playoff image shakeup

With Burton snagging one of many 16 playoff spots, there are simply three spots now obtainable (and presumably only one if Austin Dillon wins a penalty attraction Monday and there’s a new winner at Darlington) to winless drivers.

Martin Truex Jr., Ty Gibbs and Chris Buescher are above the present cutoff forward of Bubby Wallace with Truex up by 58 factors, Gibbs by 39 and Buescher by 21. Wallace is 21 factors behind Buescher and Ross Chastain is 27 factors again.

Everybody else with no win, together with Busch, face a must-win state of affairs at Darlington.

Busch settled for second, and whereas it was devastating to lose, he appeared philosophical over it.

“As soon as they acquired in entrance, with as little power as there was with the dearth of automobiles that there have been, it was onerous to make something occur from Flip 4 to start-finish,” Busch mentioned. “Moreover simply flat-out wrecking him, there was nothing else I might do. … It is all good. We have been actually, actually, actually fortunate [to miss wrecks].”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports activities. He has spent a long time masking motorsports, together with over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting Information, NASCAR Scene journal and The (Daytona Seashore) Information-Journal. Observe him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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