Toyota Racing – Harrison Burton
NASCAR Xfinity Series Quotes
DAYTONA BEACH (February 18, 2021) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Harrison Burton was made available to media via videoconference prior to the Daytona Road Course event today:
HARRISON BURTON, No. 20 DEX Imaging Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
How was your race in Daytona?
“It was awesome. I’ve been waiting to get back to the racetrack for a while with my new team members, and the old team members that are still on my team from last year. We’ve got a great group of guys. It’s been really great so far. Obviously, we are just one race in, but it was a good result. We had a chance to win and that’s all you can ask for at a place like Daytona – is give yourself a shot. We came up short and gave myself some film to watch to try to get better next time. Overall, it was a good day – tough day to lose because you lead a lot of laps at Daytona, you start getting excited. It just didn’t work out for us, so I’ve got some things I can do to try to be better and we will move on from there.”
What does it feel like to you to know you had the opportunity to attend races as a kid, and now you are driving and making your own brand?
“It’s crazy. I always thought that my dad (Jeff Burton) was a superhero. My dad was a race car driver and that was the coolest thing in the world for me to look at my dad and be proud of him and be proud of how hard he works to be there. Now to see him and how he does his career, the tail end of his career, where I was able to remember most of it and remember how hard he had to work, it’s pretty surreal to go back and have a chance to win races and race at these places that my dad went to. It’s pretty rare that you get to slow down and reflect on it. You are always so busy racing and going like crazy, but it’s pretty awesome. I’m proud of my dad and really trying to follow in his footsteps and be even half the man that he was.”
What have you done to prepare for the road course races?
“There is a ton of road races, so it’s super important for Playoff points, for race wins, for whatever your goals are. Road courses, you are going to have to find a way to win there. You are going to have to find a way to run well, win, whatever it may be. It’s really important. Recently, I’ve been working really hard on road races. I went to COTA in a TransAm car to try to get better – a TA2 car, raced there with some Toyota teammates. That was a good time. We didn’t race, but we tried to race and practiced. That was good. My dad (Jeff Burton) and I both got go-karts. We are both ripping around road courses in go-karts all the time. I’m trying to get better and he’s trying to stay in shape and have fun. I’m trying to be fast, so it’s a good combination of father-son rivalry. We have a good time with that. Lot of it has been in person seat time, and a lot of it has been watching film and trying to get better that way as well.”
What has been your biggest challenge in preparing for the road course races?
“I think the biggest challenge – the guys that separate themselves are amazing in the braking zones. You watch in the Clash; Chase Elliott is the road racing guy now. He’s the favorite to win at all of the road races. You could see him in the braking zone just slamming the car in there, using all of the brakes but not locking up, aggressive, things like that. That’s the biggest challenge – getting yourself past that next level. If you look at the data, I’m just as fast as anyone from center to exit, but those guys that have that braking technique and have dialed that down over years and years are very good. They are very hard to beat, and they are always getting better like you are. So if you show up to the racetrack and you think that I’m better now, I’m going to come in here and whoop everyone’s tail – everyone else got better too, so you’ve got to be almost doubling their rate of growth. It’s a big challenge but it’s fun.”
Do you wonder where you fit in with Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. signing extensions?
“Obviously, you think about things like that because your dream is to be in the Cup Series, but if I’m ever going to be there – I’ve got to focus on where I’m at now. Last year, I had a good year, won races, got my name into those conversations somewhat, but didn’t do anything to make it an undeniable thing. That’s what you have to do now-a-days to get a Cup ride, you have to be amazing in the Xfinity Series. You see Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Austin Cindric, guys that win a ton of races and they find a way to make themselves undeniable for the Cup Series, so that’s the next step for me, plus I love the Xfinity Series. It’s so much fun. Winning races there is an amazing feeling, and I hope to be doing more of that – but that’s the next deal for me, is trying to be at that level and have a season like that.”
What can you do to show you are the guy who can take that next step?
“I think show that you are ready to put in the work. When you get to the Cup Series, no matter how good you are in the Xfinity or Trucks or wherever you come from, it’s a big step. Those guys are all amazing. They are all guys that are there for a reason. They are the best of the best. To go there and contend for wins, and win races, is one of the hardest things on this planet to do. To show that you are willing to work, to show that you are willing to take criticism and try to get better from it, that’s my biggest thing. There’s also the side effect of work is getting better, so you want to show that you are working and getting better to try to impress people, but you are also doing it because you need to, to win races. You want to win races. I think if I just focus on where I’m at now. I know it’s a cliché answer, but if I focus on where I’m at now and try to be the best that I can be here and try to enjoy where I’m at, I think that maybe puts me in a better spot to be able to make that jump one day.”
What do you think it will take to move to the Cup Series?
“The Xfinity Series champion puts himself or herself in a great spot to be a Cup driver one day. So, whatever it takes to win a championship for me is kind of a goal. My new crew chief Jason (Ratcliff) when we first got to working with each other, we had a few meetings and we decided to write down our goals and go research what it took to win the championship – how many laps did they lead, how many stages did they win, whatever it may be. We went over all of that separately, wrote down our goals and came together with pretty similar goals – six or seven wins, less than three DNFs. Things that have been averaged out to what it takes to be a champion, now we just have to go attack and believe in those goals. There is always the outlier. (Tyler) Reddick’s first championship, I think he won one race, guys like that who can do that is another way to do it, but on average you have to win a lot of races and stages to be a champion.”
Do you have any stories that your dad told you about racing with Dale Earnhardt?
“Later towards when Dale (Earnhardt) passed away, my dad (Jeff Burton) and my mom (Kim Burton) were thinking about getting this boat. My dad has always loved boats and he was racing Cup, and he was in a spot where he thought he could get a boat. My mom was nervous, financially nervous, to do it. She was nervous to make a purchase like that – a boat. They came from little to nothing. They were in South Boston, Virginia and clawed their way through bad times, and once they got to the top, they were like we have to save our money. Dale Sr. came up to my mom, and hugged my mom, and it was probably within a few months of when he passed away and he was telling her to go and live life and go get this boat. Shortly after Dale passed away, they got this boat and made some memories on that thing before they sold it. He tells me stories about Dale a lot. He tells me stories about a lot of things because I’m interested in it, but I think that’s the coolest one. No one knew what would happen, but he was telling my parents to go enjoy life, live life and then the unthinkable happen, but they made a decision based on that moment.”
How do you grade yourself as a road racer right now?
“I don’t know, but I’ll tell you better after this weekend. I’ve been working really hard to be better. I think last weekend was my best superspeedway race I’ve ever driven. I felt like I made a lot of gains in that regard. I really hope I made a lot of gains in the road racing regard too. I’ve been working really hard on it. I think last year I was fast. I was kind of in contention for the best of the rest of last year. You had your road racing ringers and then there was the guys like me and I’d put Riley Herbst was there, I’d put Noah Gragson in there – the guys that were not quite as fast as Chase (Briscoe) and Austin (Cindric), but guys that were close and pretty quick on lap time and were able to contend in the end. I put myself in there as of last year, but hopefully this year I made that jump to be that much better and contend for wins and lead laps. I’ll tell you after this weekend.”
What stood out to you about the Daytona Road Course?
“It’s a fun race track. It’s a place that was really, really cool to run at. Just because you never thought you would. You’ve always seen the Rolex race there and you always dreamed of racing at Daytona, but you never were dreaming about racing the road course at Daytona as a little kid, or at least I wasn’t. To do that was a cool experience and something that I never thought I would do. The race track in and of itself is so fun. It’s a low grip infield with a high grip outside of the track. It leads to a lot of great passing zones, a lot of great opportunity for good racing. We saw that in the Clash. The Clash this year was a crazy finish at the end and I expect more of that this year.”
When you are racing on a road course, how can you tell the difference between rubbing and bumping that’s part of the race or is intentional?
“You know normally by how hard they hit you or whether or not you end up in the grass or whether or not you end up wrecked or spun out or whatever. Like last year, me and Ross (Chastain) were racing real hard and he wheel-hopped and he got loose under me and hit me off the race track. I was upset and I was frustrated, but I knew it wasn’t on purpose. I knew he didn’t take me out on the last lap on purpose just because I could tell what happened. You can kind of tell by the aggression level the guy behind you, the part of the race that you’re in and things like that. At the end of the day, they have fenders on our cars for a reason and we use them. It’s a lot of fun. I try and race people the way I want to be raced and I expect the same towards myself. Normally, I don’t really have too many issues with it. It’s been fun. The road races are crazy. The last five laps of road course races in the Xfinity Series are nuts. Everyone is going crazy and it’s pretty fun. It’s like racing go-karts and banging off each other, it’s pretty cool.”
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