Harrison Burton outdueled veteran Kyle Busch on the final lap of an Overtime finish of Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway to score his first career Cup Series victory and the 100th for his Wood Brothers team.
The win earned Burton and the Wood Brothers a berth in the 10-race, championship-deciding Playoffs, which begin after next week’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
The historic win for the Wood Brothers, who got their first Cup victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960 with Speedy Thompson at the wheel of the iconic No. 21 Ford, was their first since Ryan Blaney won at Pocono Raceway in 2017. The Woods have now won races at the Cup level for seven straight decades and have won NASCAR races for eight straight.
Saturday’s win also was the first since a third generation of Woods joined the ownership of the team founded by the late Glenn Wood and operated with his brothers Leonard, Ray Lee, Delano and Clay. Then a second generation, Glenn’s sons Eddie and Len and daughter Kim Wood Hall steered the team before being joined by the next generation of Jon Wood, Keven Wood and Jordan Wood Hicks. And in the winner’s interview in the media center Saturday night, a fourth generation Wood, Bailey joined the group on the podium.
The milestone victory came at Daytona, where the Woods have won five Daytona 500s and 11 more in the track’s second race, long known as the Firecracker 400.
Burton, who became the 19th driver to win a Cup race for the Woods and the 89th to win in a Ford, said getting the 100th win had been a topic of many a conversation at team meetings this year.
“That’s something you can’t take lightly,” he told reporters at Daytona. “We as a group have that place in history now forever for the 100th win for the Wood Brothers.
“To me, that just means the world.”
And he said he hopes there’s more to add to the team history before he leaves the team at season’s end.
“We’re not going to roll over and die,” he said. “We’ve had a rough year, but this is the shot in the arm we’ve needed, and we’re going to go to Darlington set on kill.”
Eddie Wood said in the winner’s interview that there are many people responsible for the team reaching this milestone.
“I don’t really have the words,” he said. “I just want to thank everybody that supported us. Harrison, he’s done such a great job tonight. I mean, missing those wrecks. It just seemed like they’d run a little while, then have another crash. He was so close. Just a matter of I’m not even going to say an inch, that one wreck, the early one. Seemed like about a quarter of an inch.
“It just means so much to our team to finally get the other win…We’ve got a wall in front of our museum that’s got 21 winners, 21 different drivers that’s won races in our cars. We get to put him up next week.”
Wood said he’s especially grateful for the support of Ford Motor Company, which is the only manufacturer the Woods have ever been associated with. And that support has been there even in the lean years, he said.
“Timing is everything, they say, but there was a phone call from Edsel Ford back in 2008,” Wood said. “We were really struggling. He said, ‘I’m going to have a gentleman call you tomorrow that’s going to help you.’
“That man’s name was Jim Farley, who is now the CEO of Ford Motor Company. That’s how far back things go.
Our family raced Ford Motor Company products since the beginning,1950. I think that’s one of the things I’m really, really proud of.”
Burton, who started from 20th place Saturday night, ran in the top 10 for much of the event but had to dodge several multi-car crashes to be in position to battle for the win at the end.
On the final restart, he lined up on the outside, with part-time Cup driver Parker Retzlaff, who was making just his second career Cup start and driving for a part-time team, on his bumper. On the inside line were two veterans – Busch and Christopher Bell.
Busch took the lead initially, then, like Burton, Retzlaff rose to the occasion and pushed Burton’s DEX Imaging Mustang Dark Horse into the lead on the final lap. From there Burton recovered from a bump from Busch that pushed him below the yellow line and kept the veteran at bay for the final yards to the finish line.
Crew chief Jeremy Bullins, who now has 10 Cup victories including the 2017 win at Pocono with Blaney, said Burton made all the right moves to survive the wrecks then prevail in Overtime. “He earned this one,” Bullins said.
The victory was a popular one in the garage, especially for those in the Blue Oval camp.
Austin Cindric posted on X: “I think I’m wearing my @woodbrothers21 hat all week. Good things happen to good people. I am so proud of @HBurtonRacing.”
Burton and the Wood Brothers team now head to Darlington Raceway for Sunday’s Cookout Southern 500.
About DEX Imaging
DEX Imaging is the digital document imaging division of Staples, the world’s largest business solutions provider. DEX sells and services the broadest selection of copiers, printers and data management solutions, such as HP, Konica Minolta, Canon, Kyocera and numerous others.
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DEX Imaging has been the recipient of virtually every industry award since the company’s inception, including the JD Power & Associates Award for Best Customer Experience, the prestigious ProTech Service award by Konica Minolta, the Diamond Premier Dealer Award by Kyocera, and the Elite DEALER Award by ‘ENX’ magazine. Other accolades include being named ‘Best Place to Work’ by numerous business journals in the markets DEX serves.
Wood Brothers Racing
Wood Brothers Racing was formed in 1950 in Stuart, Va., by Hall of Famer Glenn Wood. Wood Brothers Racing is the oldest active team and one of the winningest teams in NASCAR history. Since its founding, the team won 100 races (including at least one race in every decade for the last eight decades) and 120 poles in NASCAR’s top-tier series. Fielding only Ford products for its entire history, the Wood Brothers own the longest association of any motorsports team with a single manufacturer. Glenn’s brother, Leonard, is known for inventing the modern pit stop. The team currently runs the Ford Mustang driven by Harrison Burton in the famous No. 21 racer.
