Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Darlington Midweek Availability | Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Harrison Burton, driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford Mustang, joined us ahead of the Darlington Raceway weekend. Burton will be running a throwback paint scheme at Darlington that his father, Jeff, ran during his time with Roush Fenway Racing.
HARRISON BURTON, No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford Mustang – WHAT MAKES THIS YEAR’S THROWBACK PAINT SCHEME SPECIAL TO YOU? “Obviously, really cool. I’ve got to do a couple of my dad’s schemes throughout the years, and when I started racing for the Wood Brothers, I wasn’t really sure if that would continue or not. It wasn’t like I asked them to. I expected that they’d want to do some of their history, and I would have been really proud to have driven with some of those paint schemes as well. But, when they sent me my dad’s paint scheme last year and let me kind of drive that in a No. 21 car, it was really cool. That was a cool moment for us. Then, this year was a similar process. Obviously the NASCAR 75th Anniversary and all that, so I figured maybe they’d want to do something they had from way back in the day. But, no. They wanted to do my dad’s old schemes. So, that was really cool. They helped me pick which ones. Obviously, the one where he won in the rain at Darlington – sweeped that year at Darlington – was an easy answer. So, that was a cool moment and something I’m excited to drive.”
THE WOOD BROTHERS ARE FORD’S ALL-TIME WINNINGEST TEAM AT DARLINGTON RACEWAY. WHAT HAS THE PREPARATION AT THE SHOP LOOKED LIKE THIS WEEK? “As far as our preparation goes, it’s been a good week for us actually. I feel like we’re trending in the right direction. We had a really bad result last weekend but really good speed. There were a couple runs in there where the metrics had us during that stint ranked fourth in just average lap time. There were stints throughout the race where we had really good speed. Just got caught up in a little bit of a crash there which took that chance away. That’s racing, and speed will fix all things. Preparation this week has been good, building from what we did at Kansas, and we’re trying to bring that to Darlington.”
THE RESULTS HAVEN’T BEEN THERE, BUT YOU TALKED ABOUT HAVING GREAT SPEED. HOW REASSURING IS THAT SPEED LOOKING AHEAD, AND HOW ARE YOU PREPARING FOR THE HOT SUMMER MONTHS OF THE SEASON? “It’s a tough stretch of races, for sure. I feel really encouraged. We had a bad run early and made some big changes to the car, and I was stuck one lap down, but Erik Jones and I were racing for the free pass and we passed up to like 12th or 13th on running position racing for the lucky dog. So, both of us suddenly found some speed, and it was really fun because we were passing through the field while kind of racing each other. That was encouraging, to pass a lot of cars. Even if they weren’t for position – like in that run I passed from the back of the field up to there, and in the next run did the same thing, those for position – it was really fun. The summer months coming up are a really tough stretch. These cars have been pretty warm, that’s for sure. So just staying in the gym, being outside a lot. Running has been a big thing that I really don’t love doing, but something I’ve been doing quite a bit of. So, just getting back into the swing of that and staying in good shape. That’s kind of the foundation, and the rest is hydration throughout the week.”
ARE YOU DOING ANY TRUCK OR ASA RACING AT NORTH WILKESBORO? “Yeah, I’m not running the Truck or ASA race. I might be in the North Wilkesboro late model race – still kind of ironing out those details. That might be a late thing that is coming together. I’m excited if that happens, but we’ll see. I’m excited to do that if I can, just to try and get some laps on that racetrack. That would be really important, I think just to have an advantage. We’ll see how it goes. I have a few things to iron out first, and a lot of small details about running away from a team like the Wood Brothers or something that’s established that you kind of have to handle on your own. Running a Cup season has been challenging, but I think I’ll be able to get it done. We’ll see.”
IF YOU CAN’T, WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO PREPARE FOR THAT RACE? “It’s a little bit of a guesstimation, right? We had the test, and I wasn’t there – I think the Ford representative was [Chris] Buescher that was there. So, we get some data from there and Ford has some data from there that’s helpful for us. So that’s been a good building block, and the simulator will be as close as we can get it, without having a full race on it. Would you not be able to run that race, I think the best thing you can do is watch that late model race. Then on top of that, try to use the simulator to as much of an advantage as you can.”
YOU HAD AN ALTERCATION WITH NOAH [GRAGSON] A FEW YEARS AGO. WOULD YOU PREFER SECURITY TO STEP IN IN THOSE SITUATIONS, OR TO LET THE DRIVERS INVOLVED ADDRESS THE ISSUE DIRECTLY? “That’s a good question – I don’t know. When Noah and I fought, we were kind of able to fight for a while before anyone broke us up. Then we went to the ground and all that. I don’t know. I didn’t have a problem with what happened with us. If we got into a fight, I felt it was on my own terms. But there are two ways to look at it, right? You see guys who maybe got into a really bad crash and are mad at eachother. One guy might not be feeling good, might be a little hurt, and the other guy wants to fight him. I could see how that could be a problem. But then on the other hand, you just don’t want to have a guy get punched in the face and not be able to do anything about it, either. So, it’s kind of in-between a rock and a hard place. I know the fans love it. I love watching hockey fights and hockey in general because you know they’re going to be hitting each other hard. So, it’s a catch 22 for sure. I could definitely see where Noah probably would have wanted to have at least a fair shot to act. But, I don’t know. It’s probably on the safer side of things to separate us. The young guy in me wants to say, ‘Yeah, just let them fight it out.’ I’m not sure.”
YOU WEREN’T ALIVE YET FOR YOUR DAD’S WINS AT DARLINGTON, BUT HAVE YOU WATCHED THEM AND IF SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK HE WAS DOING SO WELL? “He was really good in [turns] three and four. He always tells me that one and two were a flaky corner. You go through one and two and it’s a lot of speed, you’re up against the wall, and it’s hard to separate yourself there. So he really got himself to where he was secure enough with the rear of the car to be good through one and two, and then get through three and four pretty good. Three and four was his focus. He did that a lot, and that kind of helped him. He was just naturally good there too – talented there, fit his style well. I’ve had some decent runs there, but I haven’t quite had any Cup wins there yet. So, I’m trying to learn from him, like I always have, but at some point you just have to go drive it yourself and go find the limit yourself. It makes it hard, right? Your dad is sitting here with all this experience and all this knowledge, and he can tell you everything he wants to tell you. But until you go out and commit to doing it – learning and trying different things yourself – you can conceptually agree but actually end up doing something completely different… even if you don’t think you are. Racing’s really tough like that. not every driver drives the same way. You look at SMT, which is a tool we use now where you can go in and look at exactly what other drivers are doing. It’s helpful, to say the least. It’s definitely a helpful tool that I use all the time, but also you have to understand that you’ll click through the top-five, and they’ll all be doing something different. There’s no clear, textbook way to drive a race car. The concepts and mindsets are important. You kind of build your own notebook from there. So, I’m trying to build that notebook, and I feel really good about Darlington as a whole. We’ll see how it goes this weekend.”
HOW MUCH PRESSURE DO YOU FEEL NOT HAVING BEEN LOCKED INTO THE NORTH WILKESBORO LINE-UP? “It’s just a cool event. It’s the first time we have been there in a long, long time – the first time I’ve actually raced there, that’s for sure. Any time that there’s a ‘first,’ you want it, right? You think of guys like Joey Logano, who does a really good job… he seems to win the first of everything we do whether it be Bristol Dirt or World Wide Technology Raceway that’s more recent. There are all these places where it’s cool to be the first to win at something, and there’s something that’s really neat about that. I know my dad, when he won his first Cup race at Texas, it was the first race there too. So, that was really cool for him. But just making the show in general – it’s important. Think about the amount of effort that goes into building these race cars for our guys at the shop, the amount of effort you put in preparing for these races. It’s important. It’s a big thing for the morale of everybody and a big thing for your sponsors. So, it’s always been important, especially when it’s a really cool event like this one I think will be. It makes it that much cooler.”
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO NORTH WILKESBORO? “No, I never got to. I’ve driven by it a few times. I’ve actually never been inside of it at all or seen what the track looks like other than on videos. So, when it got announced that we were going to go there, all the videos came flying out – of old races and things that were happening there in the past. It’s cool to see those. But other than that, no. I’ve never even seen the place. It’s going to be a challenge, for sure.”
SOME DRIVERS IN F1 EXPRESSED FRUSTRATION OVER THE EXTENDED PRE-RACE CEREMONIES. WITH INCREASING TEMPERATURES, IS THERE ANY CONCERN ABOUT THE SAME INSTANCE IN NASCAR PRE-RACE CEREMONIES? “Yeah, I definitely heard it. I saw on Twitter that the fans didn’t seem to like it much either. I thought it was interesting. I think it’s something that they’ve never done – or very much. I know they’ve done some intros before, but it seems to be different. For us, we do it every weekend. You never even think twice about it. it’s just part of what you do. You go to the pre-race drivers meeting, then go to driver intros, go to your car, anthem plays and then you go race. That’s always been my routine. That’s what I’m used to. Those guys have way different routines and have been doing different things for a long time. I could see if you weren’t used to that, then they suddenly ask you to do it. It would be kind of, ‘What is this about?’ From our side, it’s like ‘whatever.’ It’s just normal. I think our fans love the intros, and I think if the intros are done right – you think about the Bristol night race or somewhere like that, where it’s really cool – I think it has its spot, for sure. I never thought it was a problem on our side of things. Maybe we’re just tougher… no, I’m kidding. It’s definitely just normal for us, for sure.”
IS DAVID PEARSON, WHO HOLDS THE CUP RECORD FOR MOST WINS AT DARLINGTON AND WAS A HIGHLY DECORATED WOOD BROTHERS DRIVER, SOMEONE YOU LOOK UP TO? “So at the shop in Stuart [Virginia], they have a banner of every driver who has ever driven for them. Last year, I went up there and about six or seven races through the year, they had mine up. For whatever reason, my banner was next to David Pearson’s. I thought that was really cool. Obviously, I look up to guys like that in our past. You think about the stories and the things that happened that I get to hear about on a day-to-day basis, and you kind of end up taking it for granted because you just hang out with the Wood brothers all the time – they’re your bosses, and you get to know them like you’re family and it’s just whatever. But, when you really take time to reflect on it, it’s pretty neat. Definitely cool. Every weekend is cool to drive the No. 21 car, and it’s something I’ve taken a lot of pride in, for sure.”
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT AT DARLINGTON? “It’s going to be a tough race. It’s a fairly long race, it’s going to be hot, it’s going to be really slick with the worn-out surface. You’re going to have all this tire wear, which creates some interesting scenarios – who puts on the tires when, and the green flag pit-stops are really interesting. The biggest thing for me is who’s versatile enough to be able to get off the wall in [turns] three and four. You kind of watch the race back – actually just left a meeting where I watched a race with a group of people on our team, watching a lot of on-board, seeing the guys who could make passes were the ones not having to be married to the wall all the way around in three and four. Whether that’s kind of dive-bombing on entry or getting a run off turn two, it’s really important. So, just all the little things there make it tough. You have to be on your game. You’re going to be inches off the wall for four hours, probably going to kiss it once or twice, and you’re just going to ride that ragged edge for a long time. So, staying focused and locked-in for four hours at Darlington is really tough when you add the heat to it. I think it’s going to be a tough race for a lot of guys. Hopefully that leads to opportunities as well for others. I think it’ll be fun. It’s always one of my favorites, that’s for sure.”
