NASCAR Coke Zero 400: Harrison Burton Gives Wood Brothers Win No. 100

Airborne, upside down, a first time NASCAR Cup winner and the 100th series victory for the Wood Brothers.

Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway had it all.

Harrison Burton, who’s looking for a ride for 2025, held off a hard charging Kyle Busch to secure his first NASCAR Cup victory and give the legendary Wood Brothers team its first win since 2017.

The 23-year-old Burton also secured a playoff berth with the victory, becoming the 13th different winner to qualify for the playoffs this season. With one race remaining in the regular season, only three playoff positions remain available via points, and Burton’s victory moved the cutoff. Chris Buescher is now the last driver eligible for the playoffs via points. He is 21 points above the cut line, while Bubba Wallace is 21 points below it. Ross Chastain has a 27-point deficit.

“I cried the whole victory lap,” a joyous Burton said. “Obviously, got fired from this job. I wanted to do everything for the Wood Brothers that I could. They’ve given me an amazing opportunity in life. To get them 100 on my way out is amazing.”

Burton admitted the three years he has been with the Wood Brothers have been the “hardest three years of my life … the hardest three years for some of these guys’ lives. To win the way we just did, beat the best in the business, Kyle Busch, across the line, it’s pretty fantastic.”

The dash to the checkered flag was set up by an incident that left Josh Berry skidding on his roof on the backstretch on lap 159 of the scheduled 160-lap race. Berry, who will replace Burton next year in the Wood Brothers Ford, and Austin Cindric were dueling for the lead when Busch’s push of Cindric went wrong.

Cindric hit Berry, the Stewart-Haas Racing Ford turned sideways and then flipped over on its roof. It slid several hundred feet on its roof before slamming head-on into the backstretch SAFER barrier which sent it spinning like a top. The race was stopped for 6 minutes 52 seconds while safety personnel turned the car over so the uninjured Berry could exit his car.

“Obviously, paving that section helped keep me from really barrel rolling,” Berry said. “As bad as it looked, they made a big improvement over what Ryan (Preece) had last year.”

Berry’s crash sent the race into overtime. When the race restarted on lap 163, Busch was leading and elected the inside lane while Burton chose to start beside him. Busch didn’t get the strong shove he needed, and Burton held him off for the victory.

“We got off of (turn) two, somehow the bottom lane got discombobulated, broke all of our momentum, the top lane just rolled,” Busch said. “Once they got in front, with as little energy there was with the lack of cars that there were, it was hard to make anything happen from turn four to start/finish. Besides just flat-out wrecking him, there was nothing else I could do.”

Earlier in the race, Burton and Busch avoided two multi-car crashes. The first occurred on lap 60 and involved 17 cars. The second one occurred on lap 152 at the front of the field where drivers were dicing for the lead. First, Austin Cindric collided with Michael McDowell and then when McDowell slid in front of Joey Logano’s Ford, the hit launched McDowell’s Ford into the air. His car landed on its wheels, but when the melee ended 14 cars had been involved.

Off the track, Daniel Suarez was involved in a scary pit road incident. When the field pitted on lap 38 during the first caution period, Suarez’s pit was in front of Denny Hamlin’s and Burton was in front of Suarez.

“I got boxed in,” Suarez explained. “We know that every single time we do a pit stop, we drop a little bit of fuel and that’s completely normal. Unfortunately, the No. 11 (Hamlin) was leaving his pit stall right behind me, and because he was waiting for me to leave, his exhaust fired up the little fuel I dropped.

“Because I was still parked there, that went up the back of my car where the fuel cell is, and it just grabbed it. I was able to feel the heat, but because I don’t run a rearview camera, I couldn’t see it. The rearview camera is connected to the rear bumper, so I could see the smoke, but I couldn’t see the fire. I could feel the heat, but I couldn’t see how big it was.”

Suarez escaped his burning car without any injuries.

Results

NASCAR Cup Series Race - Coke Zero Sugar 400

Daytona International Speedway

1. (20) Harrison Burton, Ford, 164.

2. (11) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 164.

3. (27) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 164.

4. (33) Cody Ware, Ford, 164.

5. (26) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 164.

6. (18) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 164.

7. (29) Parker Retzlaff(i), Chevrolet, 164.

8. (12) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 164.

9. (28) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 164.

10. (13) Chris Buescher, Ford, 164.

11. (37) Carson Hocevar #, Chevrolet, 164.

12. (24) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 164.

13. (30) Zane Smith #, Chevrolet, 164.

14. (6) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 164.

15. (31) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 164.

16. (21) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 164.

17. (40) Erik Jones, Toyota, 164.

18. (8) Austin Cindric, Ford, 164.

19. (38) BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 164.

20. (39) Joey Gase(i), Chevrolet, 164.

21. (9) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 163.

22. (16) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 162.

23. (2) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 162.

24. (17) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 161.

25. (23) Austin Hill(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 159.

26. (5) Josh Berry #, Ford, Accident, 158.

27. (7) William Byron, Chevrolet, Accident, 158.

28. (25) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, Accident, 156.

29. (14) Ryan Blaney, Ford, Accident, 154.

30. (1) Michael McDowell, Ford, Accident, 151.

31. (3) Joey Logano, Ford, Accident, 151.

32. (36) Justin Haley, Ford, Accident, 151.

33. (35) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, Accident, 151.

34. (34) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 132.

35. (32) Shane Van Gisbergen(i), Chevrolet, Engine, 80.

36. (10) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, Accident, 61.

37. (15) Noah Gragson, Ford, Accident, 59.

38. (19) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, Accident, 59.

39. (4) Ryan Preece, Ford, DVP, 59.

40. (22) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, Fire, 37.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 135.413 mph.

Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 1 Mins, 40 Secs. Margin of Victory:.047 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 7 for 34 laps.

Lead Changes: 40 among 16 drivers.

Lap Leaders: M. McDowell 1-5;J. Logano 6;J. Berry # 7;B. Keselowski 8-11;J. Berry # 12;W. Byron 13;J. Berry # 14;J. Logano 15-19;T. Gilliland 20-21;J. Logano 22-23;T. Gilliland 24-26;J. Berry # 27-29;J. Logano 30-34;J. Berry # 35-37;R. Stenhouse Jr. 38-39;J. Logano 40-45;B. Wallace 46-47;C. Buescher 48;B. Wallace 49;C. Briscoe 50-51;B. Wallace 52-62;C. Hocevar # 63;C. Buescher 64-72;B. Wallace 73-74;J. Logano 75-77;K. Larson 78;J. Logano 79;K. Larson 80;J. Logano 81-88;K. Larson 89-91;B. Keselowski 92-94;J. Logano 95-97;B. Keselowski 98;M. McDowell 99-118;J. Haley 119-139;K. Busch 140-142;A. Cindric 143-150;M. McDowell 151;A. Cindric 152-158;K. Busch 159-163;H. Burton 164.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Joey Logano 9 times for 34 laps; Michael McDowell 3 times for 26 laps; Justin Haley 1 time for 21 laps; Bubba Wallace 4 times for 16 laps; Austin Cindric 2 times for 15 laps; Chris Buescher 2 times for 10 laps; Josh Berry # 5 times for 9 laps; Brad Keselowski 3 times for 8 laps; Kyle Busch 2 times for 8 laps; Kyle Larson 3 times for 5 laps; Todd Gilliland 2 times for 5 laps; Chase Briscoe 1 time for 2 laps; Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 1 time for 2 laps; Carson Hocevar # 1 time for 1 lap; Harrison Burton 1 time for 1 lap; William Byron 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 4,22,17,2,12,38,6,34,24,5

Stage #2 Top Ten: 22,12,6,5,38,51,8,24,17,23