Harrison Burton is Playoff Bound!

Coke Zero Sugar 400:

Harrison Burton captured the checkered flag in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway. The win, Burton's first, locks him into the 2024 playoffs and gave Wood Brothers Racing their 100th win as an organization. Burton survived an intense race on Saturday evening and outdueled future NASCAR Hall of Famer and two-time Cup champion, Kyle Busch, on the last lap to earn his first Cup victory. The win, albeit a huge playoff standings shuffle, was overall a feel good win for the sport as legendary NASCAR families celebrated the win together in victory lane.

Burton survived what was, at least in my memory, one of the best Daytona races we have had in years. And, in my opinion, the best Daytona or Talladega race we have had in the NextGen Cup car. Atlanta earlier this year still holds the spot as the best drafting track race in this car, but this year's Coke Zero Sugar 400 is a damn close second. Aside from NASCAR shortening the first stage so drivers would not immediately save fuel, I cannot pin point what made the race as good as it was on Saturday evening. This race has been, since it was dropped to the final regular season race, action packed and full of tension. Drivers making bold, often dumb moves. And I don't think NASCAR having it moved up due to the Olympics and Labor Day being early had any impact on making the race more tense, but something from the drop of the green flag was different, and it was good.

As mentioned above, the shortening of the first stage was a genius move on NASCAR's part. I get, and hear the argument often, about removing Stage breaks from the drafting tracks and letting races play out naturally, but we tried that with road courses and it did not make those better. I do think drafting tracks would be an improvement with that strategy, but I do not believe NASCAR will entertain dropping stage breaks. And with that, we cannot run multiple 35 lap stages - it either makes stage 3 too long or increases stage breaks and that's not the right direction either (except for the Coca-Cola 600 - a special, marquee race). Stage 2 was shaping up to be the fuel strategy stage and make things interesting with that, but Corey Lajoie and Kyle Larson decided to push like hell and wipe out Noah Gragson and a chunk of the field. This allowed Stage 2 to have a caution break that split it up and not make it a strategy stage. Then stage 3 was to hell with everything and race like crazy. Yet it wasn't a cluster like we have seen drafting tracks play out recently. It was a refreshing return to intense racing, with attrition, seemingly normal in race cautions (aside from two flips), and drivers going all out for the win and playoff points, but not being dumb about their moves on track. It felt like a good ole straight up drafting race of the 2000s. Again, it was my favorite Daytona race in recent memory.

Icing on the cake was Harrison Burton's huge win. A true feel good win for a driver who has not had a good initial run in the Cup Series - for whatever reason. But this proves that he is a Cup Series talent and I hope he gets another shot in decent Cup Series equipment sooner rather than later. Even if he does have to drop down to Xfinity or Trucks, he has what it takes to be good in the Cup Series. Adding to the enjoyment of the win is the Wood Brothers being back in the victory lane and snagging win number 100 for their organization. As a diehard, life long NASCAR fan and a lover of the history of the sport, it is always a good thing when the Wood Brothers are in victory lane and headed to the playoffs. Sure, we can be bummer for certain drivers likely not getting in the playoffs now, and we can nitpick the playoff system. But we need to do that after the season and moving forward. For now, we should celebrate a young driver earning his first win, and a historic team returning to victory lane. And say what you want, but Harrison earned the win. He ran a smart race, kept the car (relatively) clean, no major mistakes that took him out of contention, and out maneuvered Kyle Busch (with a hell of a push from Retzlaff) to get to the checkered flag first. No flukes, no luck, straight up won the race.

Next up we head to Darlington Raceway for a Labor Day weekend tradition. The Truck teams get to enjoy a long weekend while we have Xfinity and Cup on track this weekend. The Xfinity folks kickoff the weekend on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. EST on USA with the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200. And the Cup Series caps off the weekend with the iconic Crown Jewel: the Cook Out Southern 500 on Sunday evening on USA at 6 p.m. EST.

Darlington Picks:

Cup = Hamlin

Xfinity = Creed

Truck = Off

Header Photo: Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP Photo