Column By: MARTY CZEKALA / RPW – WATKINS GLEN, NY – Harrison Burton is currently in a sophomore slump in 2023.
Currently 30th in points, the driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford has two top tens on the year in his second season of Cup competition.
The finishes have improved lately, including an eighth at Pocono and a 17th at Michigan.
With two races left until the Playoffs begin, Burton is in a must-win scenario, as he’s still trying to give the Wood Brothers their 100th win in Cup competition.
Coming off a 21st-place finish at the Indianapolis road course, it is the only time in the year that NASCAR runs consecutive road courses. It can mean a lot of prep and simulator time for drivers over the past few weeks. For Burton, it’s the same as a typical oval weekend.
“I get four hours a week in the Ford simulator, and I’m always in there kind of doing last week’s racetrack,” Burton told RPW in a Zoom conference Tuesday. “I was able to kind of work on last week and ran Indy some to make that more accurate. Also worked a lot on Watkins Glen, trying to get the setup accurate. That process gets ‘rinse-and-repeated’ for me throughout the whole year. With 20 minutes of practice and right into qualifying, all the changes you can make are very limited in that practice. It’s really important to show up with your stuff sorted out the way it needs to be. The only way we can do that is with the simulator, in our eyes, so we try to focus on that every weekend.”
Burton enters the weekend at Watkins Glen, having two top fives there in his career, with the last coming in the Xfinity Series in 2021. But he wants to improve after his first Cup start in New York, finishing 28th last year.
“This Cup car is very different, and to understand how hard it is to drive this car, and what it can and cannot do. Especially through the bus stop,” Burton explained. “I’m usually really good there in general. Last year at the bus stop, we were bottoming out the race car so violently – everyone was. It was really a handful. So, I think prioritizing that and understanding that before we get there, and just having a notebook of an actual race in this car. It allows me to kind of compare better.”
As he takes it one race at a time, Daytona is still on his mind. As anyone can win it, Burton knows he has a chance. But in three Cup appearances at Daytona, Burton has finished outside the top 15 in each race and has yet to finish on the lead lap. When asked about Daytona being a win and in situation by Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports, he sees it as an opportunity to strike gold.
“This year, we’ve had two legit chances to win. [One] was this year’s [Daytona] 500, where we were leading with like 12 or 13 [laps] to go,” Burton said. “Daytona is obviously one anyone can win. We’ve obviously seen crazy Daytona 500s and the last race trying to get in. It’s always chaos. So, trying to navigate that and understand that there are going to be a lot of other guys in the same boat.”
If he were to score the hail mary walk-off win at Daytona, it would mean everything to score his first career Cup win in that fashion.
“I’ve never won a race that was like a ‘must win’ scenario – like needing to win to make it into the next round or to make the playoffs. I’ve never had that feeling. Any Cup win is special, but anything like that has to be an amazing feeling, that’s for sure.”
Cup Series action from Watkins Glen begins at 3 p.m. ET Sunday on USA Network.
