DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Harrison Burton, who might have only had 12 races left in his NASCAR Cup Series career, pulled off an upset of epic proportions Saturday night, taking the win at Daytona International Speedway and jumping from 34th place in the standings into the 2024 playoffs.

Despite knowing for months that he would not return to the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing car after this year, Burton avoided the major crashes that took out several competitors, got pushed by Parker Retzlaff at the right moment, and then blocked Kyle Busch on the final lap to take the win.

Burton doesn’t yet know where he will race next year, but he does know he has a Cup win on his resume and the 100th victory for Wood Brothers Racing, which has been racing in NASCAR since 1950.

“I cried the whole cool down lap,” Burton said. “It was just the hardest three years of my life. There’s no denying that. It was just tough and these guys supported me when it mattered most.”

The victory threw the NASCAR Cup Series playoff field into chaos, as two-time Cup champion Busch remains one of those in need of a win ahead of next Sunday’s season finale at Darington Raceway.

Busch finished second, Christopher Bell third, Cody Ware fourth and Ty Gibbs fifth.

Burton’s big surprise

Burton only had one top-five and five top-10 finishes in the first 97 Cup races of his career, so it wasn’t like he had much experience racing for a Cup win before heading into overtime on the front row.

“I was really lucky and won a lot of races when I was younger,” Burton said. “You just have to rely on the movies you’ve seen and the situations you’ve been in.”

The 23-year-old son of former Cup driver and current NBC analyst Jeff Burton said he appreciates the opportunity to drive in Cup despite the difficulties.

“You never know when you’re going to get a chance to ride again,” Burton said. “I had a chance to ride for three years, working with those guys (at the Wood Brothers) for three years. … When it comes down to it, we did a good job.”

Berry and McDowell take off

Two wild crashes in the final laps saw Josh Berry slide several hundred feet on his roof and slam hard into an inside wall. This crash occurred a few laps after Michael McDowell was distracted by contact with Austin Cindric and his car came vertical to the ground before landing back on its wheels.

Both drivers remained uninjured.

Berry slipped on a paved surface after Ryan Preece’s wild somersault last year.

“Unfortunately, I just turned around,” said Berry. “The car lifted and slid off on its roof.”

“The paving did its job compared to what we saw last year. … it was just a weird angle (to the wall). I think the car got squashed pretty bad because it was upside down. The car did its job. I feel OK. Just disappointed because I really thought I could win this thing.”

Both drivers said this is simply the nature of the racing style at Daytona. NASCAR has to limit the power generated to prevent cars from going airborne without contact. As a result, cars travel in a large group and have little time to react.

“It was going around,” McDowell said. “I had my eyes closed, but whoever hit me, it felt like it knocked me back again, because I had this moment where it got really bright and really quiet, and then I got hit and was back on the ground. … It’s the end of a Daytona race and these things happen.

“Everyone is doing their best and we had guys up there who needed to win, so you know everyone is going to do their best.”

New playoff pictures

With Burton snagging one of the 16 playoff spots, there are now only three spots available for winless drivers (and possibly just one if Austin Dillon wins a penalty appeal on Monday and there is a new winner in Darlington).

Martin Truex Jr., Ty Gibbs and Chris Buescher are above the current cut-off ahead of Bubby Wallace, with Truex 58 points ahead, Gibbs 39 and Buescher 21. Wallace is 21 points behind Buescher and Ross Chastain 27 points behind.

All other winless drivers, including Busch, must win at Darlington.

Busch was content with second place, and although the loss was devastating, he seemed to take it in his stride.

“Once they were in front, with so little energy and the small number of cars that were there, it was hard to make anything happen from Turn 4 to the start-finish line,” Busch said. “Other than just completely destroying him, there was nothing else I could do. … It’s all good. We were really, really, really lucky (to avoid our crashes).”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has covered motorsports for decades, including over 30 Daytona 500s, and has worked for ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene Magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @Subscribe.

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