Harrison Burton gives Wood Brothers their 100th Cup victory with an overtime win at Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A night that began with the Petty family giving the order to the fire trucks ended with the Wood Brothers’ awards ceremony at Daytona International Speedway after Harrison Burton won the Cup race in overtime at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night.
Burton’s win marks the 100th Cup win for the Wood Brothers and sends Burton into the playoffs.
“I cried the whole victory lap,” Burton said after his first Cup win. “Obviously, I got fired from that job. I wanted to do everything I could for the Wood Brothers. They gave me an incredible opportunity in life. For me to get them 100 points on the way out is unbelievable. We’re in the playoffs now. Let’s go to Darlington and see what happens.”
It is the eighth decade in which Wood Brothers Racing has won a NASCAR race.
MORE: Daytona Cup Race Results
MORE: What drivers said
Burton led only the final lap. His victory denied Kyle Busch his 20th consecutive win and a playoff spot. Instead, Busch finished second. Christopher Bell was third, Cody Ware fourth and Ty Gibbs fifth.
“It’s just frustrating,” Busch said. “We led races here in Daytona until the last restart and couldn’t get a win.”
Chris Buescher, who finished 10th, holds the final playoff spot heading into next week’s final race of the season at Darlington Raceway. Buescher is 21 points ahead of Bubba Wallace, who finished sixth.
During Saturday’s race, Michael McDowell was thrown into the air and Josh Berry was left hanging upside down. Both were fine.
“It just looked like the 2 (Austin Cindric) got pushed into me, and unfortunately we’re seeing a lot of rollovers like that lately, but I mentioned it on the TV broadcast – obviously paving that section helped prevent a real rollover,” Berry said.
“As bad as it looked, they’ve improved a lot from Ryan’s last year. I just can’t believe we flipped two of our Stewart-Haas cars in a row like that, but Rodney (Childers) and the whole team of four just did a great job. We were racing all night and had a damn good race car and a chance.”
Berry goes on a wild ride and crashes headfirst into a wall
Josh Berry’s No. 4 takes a wild ride down the backstretch at Daytona, crashing headfirst into the wall. He is able to climb out of his car under his own power.
A collision between Corey LaJoie and Noah Gragson with about 100 laps to go caused a 17-car crash, forcing Ryan Preece, Denny Hamlin, Gragson and Chase Elliott to retire.
Great success in stage 2 brings several cup drivers
At least 10 Cup Series drivers are involved in a Stage 2 pile-up after Corey Lajoie knocks Noah Gragson off the backstretch at Daytona.
Daniel Suarez retired when his car caught fire after the first stage. Suarez pitted, Hamlin followed him. Some gasoline was spilled in Suarez’s pit lane.
Hamlin tried to leave his pit and was partially in Suarez’s pit, but had to back up. Suarez could not leave his pit because Harrison Burton was in front of him. As Hamlin backed up, his exhaust started the fire, which spread to the rear of Suarez’s car. Suarez was able to exit the car safely.
“Just a bad deal,” Suarez told Marty Snider of NBC Sports.
Suarez catches fire in a moment of shock on the pit lane
Daniel Suarez is pulled from his race car after the No. 99 caught fire while entering pit lane in a frightening moment at Daytona.
Winner of the 1st stage: Josh Berry
Winner of the 2nd stage: Joey Logano
Noteworthy: Chase Elliott was unable to finish the race after being involved in a crash during the second stage. It is the first time this season that he has failed to finish a race. Elliott had completed all but one of his 6,438 races before competing on Saturday night.
Next: The regular season ends on Sunday, September 1, with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (6:00 p.m. ET on USA Network).
