By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
Harrison Burton’s victory in last summer’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway was among the genuine feelgood stories of a much-polarized NASCAR Cup Series season.
It marked the Wood Brothers long awaited 100th victory in the sport’s top level and it locked Burton into Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway (Sunday at 8:00 p.m. ET on FS1).
However, Burton didn’t have a Cup ride heading into 2025 as the famous No. 21 team signed Josh Berry, who won in his fifth start compared to Burton’s 97th, to replace the 24-year-old racer.
It left questions as to whether Burton will be a part of the 250-lap main event as prior to Monday, he had no seat for the All-Star Race.
That changed when Rick Ware Racing tabbed Burton to drive the No. 51 Morton Buildings Ford Mustang Dark Horse at North Wilkesboro while primary driver Cody Ware jumps to the No. 15 machine for the 100-lap preliminary race.
Before speaking with the press Wednesday, Burton and the No. 51 team had pit stop practice in preparation for Friday’s qualifying session and Pit Crew Challenge. The latter determines the order of pit stall selection and claim bragging rights of being the fastest pit squad.
“It’s really cool,” said Burton. “You kind of never know if an opportunity will come and having an automatic bid into the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race is such a big deal to me.
“Being in the race is a big deal and especially having my story with how it’s gone – of the ups and downs and now having a chance to kind of go and run in the All-Star Race is such a cool moment for me and something I’ve been really looking forward to.
“I don’t know about worried, but I really wanted to make this deal work out and I’m really happy it did and how it did.”
The Road Back to a Cup Opportunity
Regarding the deal being put together, Burton and car owner Rick Ware had casual conversations for a period of time. The goal was to put a deal together to compete in his first All-Star Race to ease off any worry, if at all, of not utilizing his eligibility.
It paid dividends for Burton, who has known Rick for quite some time.
“It seemed like a good fit for both of us with me being eligible and being able to run the All-Star Race because of my win last year,” said Burton. “(They wanted) to have a car in the All-Star Race and wanting to go compete and try and run as good as we possibly can. So, it kind of just came together through conversation.
“Having known the Rick Ware Racing group from being in the garage and over time it became more and more real and all of a sudden we’re here and getting ready to go racing this weekend.”
Despite not being known as a person that have conversations regarding deals being put together independently, he’s ready to be a part of the big show with a positive outlook.
“When I was younger, I tried to stay out of my own negotiations as much as I could because I just wanted to focus on the racing. I’m not a businessman. I’m not smart. I don’t know how to do that stuff,” Burton explained.
“(The All-Star deal) was very different because, and this is a lot how the AM (Racing) thing was as well, where it was like, ‘Hey, we want you to drive for us, so how can we figure this out?’
“From there, it’s easy for me to kind of go from there and take it more on my side, where other deals I’ve had in the past weren’t as easy or as simple as, ‘Hey, you don’t have a contract. Do you want to drive for us?’
“That was my last two, so that was really easy for me to go for that, and I think we’re all really excited for the All-Star Race and excited to see what we can do. I hope I can bring my best effort and go to North Wilkesboro and try to get a really good run and help Rick Ware Racing in that way as much as they’ve helped me by giving me this great opportunity, so it’s really, really cool.”
Rebuild and Reemerge
While away from the Sunday spotlight, Burton has kept himself busy in the Xfinity Series, driving for AM Racing’s No. 25 team. An organization that’s undergoing a rebuilding year after having a rough go with a revolving door of drivers that didn’t panned out one way or another. Most notably, Brett Moffitt (2023) and Hailie Deegan (2024) who weren’t welcomed back the following year and sacked midseason respectively.
Safe to say, AM Racing has had its ups and downs with more on the latter prior to Burton’s arrival. Even hiring him as their driver was a risk knowing Burton hasn’t been full-time in Xfinity since 2021 when AM Racing was just a full-time Craftsman Truck Series program.
“It was a risk to do this pathway of going to AM, a team that was coming off of a really, really rough season on their end,” Burton said on joining his current Xfinity team. “For them it was a risk going to a driver that had just lost his job, but the thing that I think is really gonna help as far as getting me back on Sundays is, to me, it means more to be a part of a rebuilding race team and turn that team into a successful race team.”
With the series having another off-week, Burton and the entire No. 25 team are riding the positive waves as they’ve put together six top-10s with three of them coming in succession, highlighted by a third-place finish at Rockingham Speedway last month.
Those runs have propelled Burton to 10th in the regular season standings after 12 races, 14 points above the 12-driver cutoff line with 13 races left before the playoffs.
It’s given Burton a gratifying perspective as the team took a risk in hiring him to the rebuilt program and is seeing the fruits of its labor paying off where he hopes they can continue bringing solid results.
“We’ve had a good little stretch here of putting together clean races and grinding out good finishes. That’s kind of what’s important for our team right now,” Burton said of recent momentum. “We’re a small team and growing. We have a lot of great people, but maybe not all the resources in the world.
“For us to bring back clean race cars and have done that throughout the year, that’s a credit to my spotter and our race team for not having massive mechanical failures as well, so we’re able to stack and build and make our cars better throughout the year.
“Now we’re starting to see the fruits of that labor. We’re really faster and faster, finishing better and better and continuing to stack up those and go up the point standings and hopefully that will continue to build into more top-fives and hopefully wins.
“So, it’s been really good and I’m really proud of the guys at AM Racing for the effort that they’ve put in. The work ethic and the amount of time it takes for a small team to succeed the way that ours has, is really, really cool. This is something I’ll definitely cherish is how much those guys work on and put effort into that race team.”
Cherishing the Positives and Understanding the Challenges
In a series like the Xfinity Series, it’s garnered a difficult reputation of being a demolition derby where most races have become a game of survival. Whether it’s avoiding driver incompetence or mechanical woes, Burton has been fortunate enough to bring cars home in one piece, a trait AM Racing weren’t known for at all last year.
That in mind, Burton elaborated it’s been neat to bring the No. 25 Ford without it being a total loss, but the biggest challenge has been turnaround times between races.
“It’s not necessarily a car count issue for us, but when you bring a car back in one piece and you don’t have to take a front clip off it, you’re not having to dismantle it to the same degree,” Burton commented.
“Our biggest enemy on the Xfinity side right now is time, where we get all these races back-to-back-to-back and our guys are working really, really hard and all of a sudden you’re getting out of the shop on time, but you don’t have two days to sit there and massage on the race car.
“So, for us, to beat that enemy of time we have to finish the races with cars in piece, and that’s big teams and small teams. We’re both fighting the same things. It might be a little bit more important (for smaller teams), but if you go on a run where you wreck three or four race cars on a big team, that is for sure felt as well,” Burton continued.
“That’s always been a thing in racing and especially in the Xfinity Series, but it’s been good to see the benefit of that and starting to see the guys that we have that are really smart, and I think a lot of them put the effort that they can into the race cars rather than just fixing the mistake that I made. That’s been a good thing for us.”
From Burton’s viewpoint, the final stint of races with the Wood Brothers helped build his confidence before moving back to Xfinity. As a result, he’s felt that he’s become a better all-around competitor with his mind focusing on the next race rather than thinking about a race that won’t commence for a while.
“When I was really young I got in trouble doing that of being like, ‘Oh, this is a great racetrack for me. I’m gonna put a lot of effort into this because I think I can win,’” said Burton.
“You kind of lose sight of the next week, so, for me, Charlotte is our next one on the Xfinity side and I’m really excited about that one just because we’ve had time to massage on that race car a little bit.
“I’ve been in the sim a lot for that racetrack and so I’m excited about that and that kind of fits with my motive of focusing on the next race and not worrying about all that stuff.”
It’s a matter of time when Burton’s No. 25 Ford will consistently battle for top-fives, even race wins, but rest assure the 24-year-old has grown a lot over the years. Having tremendous sources of people to talk to in the garage helps, but guiding his own path is slowly paying off that’ll bode well in the long run.
“For us, to be able to win a race, to be able to contend for race wins, that would be huge not only for myself as the driver on the racetrack, but also off the racetrack because there’s a lot of key decisions that I’ve been a part of,” Burton explained. “There’s been a lot of things that I’ve been a part of week in and week out to try and be a part of building this race team, and it’s made me a better race car driver.”
“I’ve learned more ins-and-outs of race teams and more tough decision-making and been through tougher situations in this year than a lot of times in my career, so I think that is valuable, just as how it was valuable for me to race with the Wood Brothers and learn from Len and Eddie Wood and Joe Gibbs and Kyle Busch.
“I’ve been all over the place and in a lot of different ownership groups with how they run things, so I’m starting to learn all this stuff and I think I’m getting more valuable on the team side as well as on the racetrack.”
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