Harrison Burton

Burton performed well enough in 2023 to earn another season in the Wood Brothers Racing Ford. While the campaign fell short of this team's recent past standards, it was good enough to get another season for Burton. He grabbed two Top-10 finishes and ranked 31st in the driver standings at season's end. The 24.7 average finish was up a couple spots over his 22.8 average finish in 2022. That's regression Burton would like to reverse in the upcoming season. His best tracks to this point have been the bigger ovals, and his short track racing has not been bad. The big weakness has been intermediate oval racing and road circuits. Unfortunately, those two style tracks make up a bulk of the Cup Series schedule and will need to be solved if Burton is to make any progress in 2024.

Burton will be back for another season of action with Wood Brothers Racing. He was a part of last year's deep rookie class. Burton nabbed one Top-5 and two Top-10 finishes in the 36-event schedule. It was a reasonably good performance for a driver that made the jump from Xfinity to the Cup Series with just two seasons in NASCAR junior circuit. Now Burton will look to build on that campaign with a better performance in 2023. The young driver will be reunited with Brian Wilson at crew chief and the two will look to build on the solid foundation they laid down in Burton's rookie season. He will look for more week-to-week consistency and to improve on the 22.8 average finish he posted in 2022. Burton will face some stiff competition to improve as there is quite a bit of parity and excellence, even in the lower tiers of the driver field.

Wood Brothers Racing closed the book on a two-season run with Matt DiBenedetto at the end of last year. Now they're looking to rookie Burton to carry them into the future. This team has produced steady results since 2015 with drivers like Ryan Blaney, Paul Menard and DiBenedetto. They may take a few steps back in the upcoming campaign turning to the relatively untested Burton. The 21-year-old talent has two Xfinity Series seasons under his belt and just one full truck series campaign. Results have been a bit sporadic and uneven in his experience in the lower divisions of NASCAR, but the Wood Brothers team was not phased in parting ways with DiBenedetto and signing Burton to drive the team's No. 21 Ford. Brian Wilson comes onboard with the team to serve as crew chief, and he will quickly look to form a bond with Burton so they can make a serious challenge for Rookie of the Year in 2022.

The most improved driver of last season was easily Burton. The youngster struggled in the truck series in 2019, but his first full season of Xfinity Series action did not disappoint. Burton grabbed four victories, 22 Top-10 finishes and rounded out 2020 strong with two wins in the last three races of last season. He and the No. 20 Toyota team didn't race for the championship last year, but they should be in the running for it in 2021. Burton will be paired with a new crew chief, Jason Ratcliff, as Ben Beshore moves to Gibbs' Cup Series operation. Radcliff has 54 Xfinity Series victories to his credit spread over 14 dynamite seasons. He and Burton will look to quickly develop some chemistry as the young driver looks to build on his performance of last season. This driver and team have a ton of potential and will have the goal of winning the championship in season two.

The Joe Gibbs Racing development driver takes over the No. 20 Toyota Supra that Christopher Bell piloted the last few seasons. Bell won a staggering 16 races and claimed 46 Top-10 finishes spread over the last three seasons with this race team. Burton will have some very big shoes to fill indeed. The 19-year-old Burton spent the last four seasons prepping in the Gander Truck Series as well as some racing in the K&N Pro Series East and ARCA. He won the 2017 K&N Pro Series East championship, and racked up five victories in that series while also winning three-career ARCA events. However, Burton didn't enjoy nearly that much success in 38-career truck series starts. We believe that illustrates that he has some talent, but has yet to discover all his potential. It could take some time to find it even with this strong race team.

Burton returns to KBM this season, and will take on his first full season of action in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series. The 18-year-old prodigy has raced a combined 15 starts in this division over the last three years with Kyle Busch Motorsports. Burton has forged four Top-5 and seven Top-10 finishes, including one pole, in those starts. The talent level is quite obvious. Burton nabbed five wins and marched to the championship in the K&N Pro Series East in 2017, so he's clearly one of the up-and-coming talents in the sport. KBM will put him in the strong No. 18 Toyota entry, and likely pair him with veteran crew chief Rudy Fugle. One or more visits to victory lane is all but in the bag, and an outside run at the championship is possible.

KBM will once again carry on their rich tradition of developing young NASCAR talent. Burton is the son of former NASCAR great, Jeff Burton. The 17-year-old got just a cup of coffee in the truck series in 2017, but now he'll up his participation in the upcoming season. Burton will get nine starts in the strong No. 51 Toyota Tundra. He nabbed just one Top 10 in his six starts last season, but we expect he'll be much better this season. Jones, Davis and Herbst will fill out the rest of the 25-event schedule. Mike Hillman Jr. will call the shots from the top of the war wagon, and this will be one of the stronger multi-driver teams in the Camping World Truck Series in 2018.