BURTON EARNS TOP FIVE FINISH AT ATLANTA
Burton starts rookie NASCAR Xfinity Series season with eight consecutive top 10 finishes
ATLANTA (June 6, 2020) – Harrison Burton (fifth) led Toyota at the NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday evening.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS)
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Race 8 of 33 – 251 miles, 163 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, AJ Allmendinger*
2nd, Noah Gragson*
3rd, Justin Haley*
4th, Daniel Hemric*
5th, HARRISON BURTON
8th, BRANDON JONES
17th, RILEY HERBST
23rd, MASON MASSEY
33rd, TIMMY HILL
34th, CHAD FINCHUM
36th, STEPHEN LEICHT
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
HARRISON BURTON, No. 20 DEX/Hunt Brother’s Pizza Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
Up-and-down day but finished with your best run and scored a top five.
“It’s always a good thing when you can eventually get it together – put what you’ve learned together and make the car a lot better a lot better at the end. I felt like we struggled really bad loose early, and then I don’t know how, but my crew chief Ben Beshore always makes it a lot better at the end of these races. That was a big, big gain at the end, so we got some notes for the future on that, for the next few mile-and-a-halves. We go to Homestead next, which is similar with the fall off and no grip and hanging on. It should be really, really fun to go there and have a chance at it. I think the biggest thing for us is just firing off better and seeing what we can do if we have a little better track position to start the last stage.”
You have raced a Supra at Homestead. How does that help you prepare for two races next weekend?
“It helps me a lot. It’s a super big advantage for me, compared to normal. It’s hard to go to these places and drive into turn one not really knowing what to expect at all. I have a test under my belt from years past, and I have raced there as well, so I’m feeling pretty confident about going somewhere that I’ve been to before and running the top again which is super fun. It’s going to be hot and slick, and we are going to be sliding around so it should be a good show.”
BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Toyota Service Centers Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 8th
Top 10 finish today. Just talk about the run overall.
“It was not what I expected to get going. I thought actually that we were going to be really fast. We kind of came back with the same setup we had last year with some tweaks and changes that we thought were going to be a lot better. From the drop of the green flag, I was really loose – out of control, and just kind of struggled from the start of the race to the end, but I think we continued to make decent changes at it, but just kind of inconsistent, all over the place. I think at the end of the day – top 10, you can’t beat that. We always want to finish the races. You want to be in the top 10, top five, when you do so. We were decent. I think, borderline, running top four lap times at the end of the race. That was a little bit of a positive. Just needed a little bit more at the initial start of the run, so we didn’t get passed so much.”
Looking to next week, you have two races in one weekend. What are you looking forward to most about racing twice in one weekend?
“The biggest positive out of that is Homestead is one of those tracks that I circled that I wanted to work on it, pay extra attention to it, and make sure that we are really looking at all of the tools that we have. I think having back-to-back races, I can run one race, after that go back and kind of study that SMT data, go back and watch the race and really dissect while its fresh in your mind what you could have done better. I think that’s where it’s going to pay off running back-to-back like that.”
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