Harrison Burton, driver of the #21 DEX Imaging Ford, takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on August 24, 2024 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images)

NASCAR News: Harrison Burton scores first Cup win at Daytona

Harrison Burton roared to his first career victory in Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race, claiming a historic 100th win for the Wood Brothers Racing team in overtime at Daytona International Speedway.

Burton led only the last of the 164 laps in the Coke Zero Sugar 400, bypassing Kyle Busch just a half-lap from the finish. The first win of his Cup Series career clinched a Hail Mary berth in the 16-driver playoff field.

Harrison Burton, driver of the #21 DEX Imaging Ford, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on August 24, 2024 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Busch drove home second, with his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet just 0.047 seconds back at the checkered flag. Christopher Bell placed third, with Cody Ware fourth and Ty Gibbs completing the top five.

A sizable Stage 2 crash involved the top three in the Cup Series standings, dropping a handful of drivers from contention. Chase Elliott, teammate William Byron and three-time Daytona winner Denny Hamlin were among those involved after Noah Gragson and Corey LaJoie collided on the backstretch, setting off a fracas that eventually counted 17 cars among the victims.

A pair of Ford drivers divided the stage wins, with Josh Berry clinching Stage 1 and Joey Logano holding on for a Stage 2 victory. Logano led the most laps (34) and pole-starter Michael McDowell led the second-most (26), but both were sidelined in another pileup in Turn 1 with nine laps remaining in regulation.

Berry’s day ended in a late-race dash when No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford went upside-down in a backstretch calamity with two laps to go in regulation. Berry emerged unhurt in that tangle, which forced a red flag and sent the race into overtime.

The Typical Daytona Wreckfest

The “big one” part two happened in Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

With nine to go at Daytona, Austin Cindric got into race leader Michael McDowell, who went airborne and slammed into the hood of Joey Logano. 14 cars total were involved in the wreck, including some heavy hitters such as Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick.

The Cup Series’ next race is next Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM, NBC Sports App) at Darlington Raceway. The event is the regular-season finale, and the 16-driver postseason field will be settled after the 500-mile Labor Day classic.

The pit crew of the #21 DEX Imaging Ford, celebrates after Harrison Burton wins the NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on August 24, 2024 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Quotes

Harrison, welcome to the Playoffs. For you personally, what does this mean?

HARRISON BURTON: I don’t know. I cried the whole victory lap. 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. We’re in the Playoffs now. Let’s go to Darlington and see what happens.

I want to talk to you about this team who could have easily given up once the ride changed, Josh Berry was getting in this car. They never gave up on you. What was the point of how they were able to rally around you?

HARRISON BURTON: It’s amazing. It’s been the hardest three years of my life, obviously 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.

I made a bet with Jeremy, my crew chief, that if we won, we’re staying here and driving home. We’ll be at a bar somewhere. Come find us (laughter). We’re going to celebrate this one.

Who are we going to have to calm down more, mom or dad?

HARRISON BURTON: My mom. My dad was pretty calm on the radio. My fiancée and mom are just crying. All of those people have been with me in the worst days of my life, best days. Good to get DEX Imaging to Victory Lane and get them another best day.

 

Kyle, you did everything right tonight. How do you square this one?

KYLE BUSCH: Just finished second. It’s all good. We were really, really, really lucky tonight to miss a few of them crashes.

All good. Just real proud of everybody, Randall, all the guys at RCR, ECR did a great job, brought a fast car. Was hoping we could get those three No. 8 specials on Monday, get some chicken tenders rolling, but wasn’t meant to be.

We’ll take this. Got a good little stretch going with these last three weeks, and hope we can do what we need to do next week.

What could you have done different on the final lap?

KYLE BUSCH: I haven’t seen any of it. Just from what I recall, we got off of two, somehow the bottom lane got discombobulated, broke all of our momentum, the top lane just rolled.

Once they got in front, with as little as energy as 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.

Can you win the Southern 500 next week?

KYLE BUSCH: Yeah, I mean, we want to. We ran good there the first time I ran with these guys early last year. But early this year, we struggled mightily. We’ll just have to go with hopefully a really good package that works, get our job done.

2024 Coke Zero 400 Race Results

Fin Str No. Driver Team Laps Led Laps Status
1 20 21 Harrison Burton DEX Imaging Ford 1 164 Running
2 11 8 Kyle Busch Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet 8 164 Running
3 27 20 Christopher Bell Interstate Batteries Toyota 0 164 Running
4 33 15 Cody Ware Jacob Construction/Parts Plus Ford 0 164 Running
5 26 54 Ty Gibbs REAGAN The Movie Toyota 0 164 Running
6 18 23 Bubba Wallace Columbia Sportswear Company Toyota 16 164 Running
7 29 62 * Parker Retzlaff(i) Funkaway Chevrolet 0 164 Running
8 12 6 Brad Keselowski King’s Hawaiian Ford 8 164 Running
9 28 31 Daniel Hemric Cirkul Chevrolet 0 164 Running
10 13 17 Chris Buescher Fifth Third Bank Ford 10 164 Running
11 37 77 Carson Hocevar # Premier Security Chevrolet 1 164 Running
12 24 1 Ross Chastain Worldwide Express Chevrolet 0 164 Running
13 30 71 Zane Smith # Ambetter Health Chevrolet 0 164 Running
14 6 14 Chase Briscoe Mahindra Compact Tractors Ford 2 164 Running
15 31 42 John Hunter Nemechek Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota 0 164 Running
16 21 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 0 164 Running
17 40 43 Erik Jones Famiy Dollar Toyota 0 164 Running
18 8 2 Austin Cindric Menards/Tarkett Ford 15 164 Running
19 38 78 * BJ McLeod(i) Power Slap Chevrolet 0 164 Running
20 39 44 * Joey Gase(i) NFPA Chevrolet 0 164 Running
21 9 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 5 163 Running
22 16 3 Austin Dillon BREZTRI Chevrolet 0 162 Running
23 2 38 Todd Gilliland Grillo’s Pickles Ford 5 162 Running
24 17 19 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota 0 161 Running
25 23 33 * Austin Hill(i) United Rentals Chevrolet 0 159 Accident
26 5 4 Josh Berry # eero Ford 9 158 Accident
27 7 24 William Byron Liberty University Chevrolet 1 158 Accident
28 25 45 Tyler Reddick MoneyLion Toyota 0 156 Accident
29 14 12 Ryan Blaney Advance Auto Parts Ford 0 154 Accident
30 1 34 Michael McDowell Long John Silver’s Ford 26 151 Accident
31 3 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 34 151 Accident
32 36 51 Justin Haley Beef a Roo Ford 21 151 Accident
33 35 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Kroger/BIGGIE Muffins/Capri Sun Chevrolet 2 151 Accident
34 34 7 Corey LaJoie Celsius Chevrolet 0 132 Running
35 32 16 Shane Van Gisbergen(i) Safety Culture Chevrolet 0 80 Engine
36 10 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 0 61 Accident
37 15 10 Noah Gragson Rush Truck Centers Ford 0 59 Accident
38 19 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Cares Toyota 0 59 Accident
39 4 41 Ryan Preece TRUEWERK Ford 0 59 DVP
40 22 99 Daniel Suarez Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Chevrolet 0 37 Fire