Harrison Burton is “unlikely” to return to Wood Brothers Racing for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season at this time.
[autotag]Harrison Burton[/autotag] joined [autotag]Wood Brothers Racing[/autotag] in 2022 as the NextGen car made its debut; however, everything has gone downhill. Burton has regressed every season and currently sits 33rd in the point standings with the worst average finish in his career. Amid a very down year, Wood Brothers Racing could be making a change for the 2025 season.
According to FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrss, Burton’s return to Wood Brothers Racing seems unlikely as he sits in a contract year. The driver of the No. 21 car has really struggled, with only seven top-30 finishes through 12 races in 2024. Burton’s struggles have been shocking as he nears 100 Cup Series starts, which is when young drivers typically show improvement.
It’s unclear which direction Wood Brothers Racing would go if Burton doesn’t return next season. The NASCAR Cup Series organization expected much more from the young driver, but he hasn’t translated well to the top level. Time is running out, and Burton needs to make a drastic improvement to save his seat at Wood Brothers Racing,
Harrison Burton must find speed with Wood Brothers Racing after a rough start to the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.
[autotag]Harrison Burton[/autotag]’s start to the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season has not gone well. Through eight races, Burton sits 34th in the point standings, only five points above Zane Smith, the last full-time driver in the standings. This has been a disastrous start as the driver of the No. 21 car’s average finishing position has dropped by five spots compared to last year.
What happens next is simple. Burton must find speed with Wood Brothers Racing, or his future with the organization will be seriously doubtful. The 23-year-old driver only has one top-25 finish, with sixth finishes of 30th or worse. Most of these races have been due to poor speed, which is typically unusual for Wood Brothers Racing when looking into the past.
Burton hasn’t adapted well to the NextGen car, and if the trends continue, he will be regressing for a third straight year. Typically, drivers who near their 100th Cup Series start to improve, but Burton has gone in the opposite direction. The new Ford body could be a reason behind such a decline, but the performance needs to improve.
There will be further questions if Burton stays in 34th place in the point standings. After almost making the playoffs with Matt DiBenedetto in his final year, Wood Brothers Racing expects more out of its No. 21 car. Burton has the talent to make that happen, but he needs to figure out how to finish in the top 20 spots consistently.
Harrison Burton had a down year with Wood Brothers Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series. Here, you can check out Burton’s 2023 season in review!
[autotag]Harrison Burton[/autotag] entered his second full-time NASCAR Cup Series season with optimism that he would improve; however, the Wood Brothers Racing driver didn’t see much success. Burton ended the year with two top-10 finishes and a 24.7 average finishing position. The driver of the No. 21 car finished 31st in the point standings, which is a career-low.
Burton’s year was highlighted by a best finish of sixth place at Darlington Raceway in the spring. The Wood Brothers Racing driver didn’t have the speed to compete and only had one top-15 finish in the last 16 races. Needless to say, Burton really struggled in his sophomore season, and an improvement in performance needs to happen soon.
The 23-year-old driver needs to improve, or he could be entering his final season with Wood Brothers Racing. The performance of the No. 21 Cup car has been downright shocking, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see a change made for 2025. However, Burton can put these rumors to rest with several good runs next season.
Harrison Burton will officially return to the No. 21 car for Wood Brothers Racing in his third full-time NASCAR Cup Series season in 2024.
Wood Brothers Racing brought in [autotag]Harrison Burton[/autotag] for the 2022 NASCAR season but his second year has not been up to standards. Burton has two top-10 finishes and a 24.7 average finishing position, which is worse than last season. However, the NASCAR organization won’t let those performances get in the way of its future.
On Saturday afternoon, Burton told The Athletic that he will return to the No. 21 car for the 2024 season. Team Penske owner Roger Penske also confirmed on Sunday evening that he will be driving the entry next year. The driver of the No. 21 car will enter his third full-time season as a driver in the Cup Series due to this move.
Overall, this is a great decision as Burton is a young driver who needs time to develop as a competitor in the Cup Series. Wood Brothers Racing needs to gain continuity as an organization and keeping a driver who has shown promise in NASCAR is a great step.
Harrison Burton’s future in the No. 21 car for Wood Brothers Racing receives a big update as the team works on plans for the 2024 season.
[autotag]Harrison Burton[/autotag] and [autotag]Wood Brothers Racing[/autotag] have been a story to follow during NASCAR silly season as the organization has pondered whether to give its young driver a third full-time season. However, it appears that Wood Brothers Racing has made a decision and the outcome should be positive for Burton’s future in the NASCAR Cup Series.
According to The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi, Burton is expected to return to the No. 21 car for Wood Brothers Racing in the Cup Series for a third season. The driver of the No. 21 car currently sits 31st in the point standings as the second-lowest full-time driver. Burton has statistically regressed compared to his rookie campaign but the organization is expected to give him another shot.
Overall, this decision makes sense as many young NASCAR drivers typically start showing more improvement near their 100th Cup Series start, which comes in a third full-time season. Burton may get another opportunity but he needs to start bringing in results sooner rather than later.
Harrison Burton discusses his future with Wood Brothers Racing amid rumors about his plans for the 2024 NASCAR season.
[autotag]Harrison Burton[/autotag] currently drives the No. 21 car for Wood Brothers Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series; however, the 2023 season has not gone as expected. Burton has not been very stellar in his sophomore campaign with only two top-10 finishes and a 23.2 average finishing position. Still, it was previously reported by The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi that he was expected to return for a third season in the No. 21 car.
It would make sense for Burton to return as he is fairly young in his Cup Series career. The results have not been very pretty to this point but there are reasons for optimism. Despite the opportunity for growth and the latest reports, Burton is not sure what he is doing next season and talked about the situation.
“A lot of the silly season stuff, for me, has been interesting for sure to hear about,” Burton said. “I don’t know where rumors come from for a lot of those. I see it and get surprised sometimes. I haven’t seen one yet that’s been right because I don’t even know what’s going on for next year yet.”
“It’s fairly easy for me because I’m happy where I am, and I hope to continue to race where I am. It’s fairly easy for me to just go to work with the guys that I’ve worked with over the last year and a half or so. It’s not super distracting at this point.”
Burton has been improving lately so it should help his case as he wants to return to Wood Brothers Racing. The North Carolina native has three top-20 finishes in the last five races. For now, Burton will continue to pilot the No. 21 car with hopes of even more good finishes and a third full-time season in 2024.
Harrison Burton hears all the speculation about his future with Wood Brothers Racing, but all it is, for now at least, is just that – speculation. “A lot of the silly season stuff, for me, has been interesting for sure to hear about,” Burton said. …
Harrison Burton hears all the speculation about his future with Wood Brothers Racing, but all it is, for now at least, is just that — speculation.
“A lot of the silly season stuff, for me, has been interesting for sure to hear about,” Burton said. “I don’t know where rumors come from for a lot of those. I see it and get surprised sometimes. I haven’t seen one yet that’s been right because I don’t even know what’s going on for next year yet.”
Burton’s sophomore season in the famed No. 21 Ford is winding down. There haven’t been many highlights: Burton is 30th in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings with two top-10 finishes, 20 laps led, and an average finish of 23.2.
There have been two races where Burton felt he had a legitimate shot to win in a season that has otherwise been a struggle. Burton led nine laps late in the Daytona but was caught in an accident in overtime. He ran a quiet and competitive race at Darlington Raceway, finding himself near the front on a pair of late restarts and finishing sixth.
There are 12 races left in the season.
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“It’s fairly easy for me because I’m happy where I am, and I hope to continue to race where I am,” Burton said of tuning out the speculation. “It’s fairly easy for me to just go to work with the guys that I’ve worked with over the last year and a half or so. It’s not super distracting at this point.”
Burton is the third driver the Wood Brothers have worked with in the last five years. The most successful during the stretch has been Matt DiBenedetto, who earned the organization a playoff berth in 2020, finishing 13th in the championship standings with 11 top-10 finishes.
Wood Brothers Racing was last in victory lane in the Cup Series in 2017 with Ryan Blaney. The organization’s next victory will be its 100th.
Wood Brothers Racing is expected to bring back Harrison Burton for a third full-time season in the No. 21 car in 2024.
[autotag]Harrison Burton[/autotag] is currently in his second full-time season with Wood Brothers Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series but the results have not been very good to this point. Burton has one top-5 finish at the Indianapolis Road Course in 2022 over his last 59 races.
In fact, the driver of the No. 21 car for Wood Brothers Racing has regressed from his rookie season. Burton was 27th in the point standings with a 22.8 average finishing position in 2022 compared to 30th in the point standings with a 23.3 average finishing position in 2023.
Due to the young NASCAR driver’s struggles, there has been speculation over whether he will receive a third season with the famous organization. To this point, the signs of Burton’s possible return to Wood Brothers Racing remain positive.
According to The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi, Burton is expected to return to the No. 21 car for Wood Brothers Racing in 2024. The organization knew it would be a slow and gradual improvement but it hasn’t gone as planned this season. Nothing is official at this point in time.
For now, Burton will look to have a strong conclusion to the NASCAR regular season and carry some momentum into the playoffs. It may not be good enough to compete for wins but any sign of progress would be a good thing for Burton.
Harrison Burton heard the same warning every time he moved up the racing ladder into a new series. “I’ve heard it in every series I’ve been in – you’re a rookie, and the veterans are going to pick on you – and it never happened until I got the Cup …
Harrison Burton heard the same warning every time he moved up the racing ladder into a new series.
“I’ve heard it in every series I’ve been in – you’re a rookie, and the veterans are going to pick on you – and it never happened until I got the Cup Series,” Burton said. “I was like, ‘Aw that won’t happen.’ Well, sure enough, it did.”
Fortunately for Burton, he’s not a rookie anymore. As such, the bright yellow decals on the rear bumper of his Wood Brothers Racing Ford Mustang are no longer there. Those rookie stripes – something every driver wants because it means they’ve arrived, but something they also can’t wait to get rid of.
“It’s supposed to be a ‘Hey, this guy is new kind of thing,’” Burton said with a sense of humor. “But it’s more like a target; aim for the yellow stripes. It’s awesome.
“[Austin] Cindric and I were both pumped to rip those things off the back bumper and get rolling into this year.”
Burton, unfortunately, didn’t get to physically rip his rookie stripes off—something he gladly would have done but missed the chance.
“So, after the offseason started, all of our cars went back to the shop, and we had our meetings and whatnot, and then I sat on my couch for about a solid week,” Burton said. “By the time I went back to the shop, they were all gone. So, I didn’t get to do it.
“I was a little upset because I did want to get those things off there. But my first little offseason break didn’t line up with the removal of the yellow stripes.”
A second-generation driver, Burton, 22, is the son of former driver and current NBC Sports analyst Jeff Burton. It’s been a quick trip to NASCAR’s top level for Harrison. A year in the Craftsman Truck series (2019) gave way to two years in the Xfinity series (’20 and ’21) before being tabbed to drive the famed Wood Brothers No. 21.
It was, as expected, an up-and-down rookie season. Quite literally in Burton’s first Daytona 500 as he went from leading the field to flipping on the backstretch. He also crashed at the second race in Fontana, and went on to finish 27th in the standings with an average finish of 22.8.
Burton no longer has a bright yellow target on his back. Motorsport Images
He had 14 finishes inside the top 20, including two top-10 finishes. An impressive third-place run on the Indianapolis road course, a race highlighted by carnage, was the highlight of Burton’s season.
“They just race you hard,” said Burton of what it means to be picked on as a rookie. “[Michael] McDowell was one that came up to me at the Clash last year and was like, ‘Hey man, I’m going to race you really hard this year because you’re a rookie, and I got raced really hard when I was a rookie.’ I said, ‘OK, sounds good.’
“He was super up-front about it and made me laugh pretty hard. But things like that that no one has ever said to me before I got to Cup. I was like, all right, sounds good. It’s a funny thing.
“Everyone has had that experience and now, when they aren’t the rookies, it’s, ‘Yeah, it’s not me, so I’m going to pick on that guy now.’”
Time will tell if Burton begins returning the favor. But he’s looking forward to not being the guy whom the veterans view as expendable at certain racetracks.
“Everyone gets moved at (places like) Martinsville, but honestly, the mile-and-a-half’s last year were the hardest racing I’ve done in my whole life,” Burton said. “The amount of intensity that this series has from first all the way back to, say, 20th and the level of aggression.
“In the old car, if you got close to someone and you were on the inside, you’d get really loose. Well, now the outside car gets really tight. So, I’d have Ross Chastain dooring me in the middle of a corner at a mile-and-a-half and I’m like, holy cow, this is crazy. You’d never have that before.
“At Texas, I think I was entering Turn 1, which is sketchy enough, and me and Ross are banging doors on entry. Like, holy cow. I feel like the mile-and-a-halfs are more aggressive than I’d ever imagined last year.”
If the first few races of Burton’s sophomore season are any indication, the aggression is still there. But those rookie stripes on his bumper aren’t, and that means a lot to Burton for several reasons.
“Oh yeah, it was awesome to not see them,” Burton said. “It is cool to be in a second year of racing in the Cup Series. It’s funny to talk about getting rid of the yellow stripes so I don’t get moved out of the way at Martinsville and whatnot, but it is cool to take them off because it means you’re still here racing in Cup and doing what you love to do for another year.
