There’s making a statement, and then there’s making a statement with a mighty roar. Harrison Burton, who found out earlier this season that he would be replaced by Josh Berry in the No. 21 Ford, decided to deliver his soon-to-be-former team, the legendary Wood Brothers Racing, their 100th win in spectacular fashion.
Meanwhile, his replacement, Josh Berry, had a night to remember—but not in the way he’d hoped.
With 10 laps to go, the battle for the win turned into a three-wide frenzy. Pole-sitter Michael McDowell took a slight lead and began a frantic dance, blocking anyone and everyone. But with just 8 laps left, disaster struck. Austin Cindric tapped the rear of McDowell’s car, sending it sideways and airborne. The rest of the field drove headlong into clouds of smoke and a graveyard of mangled metal. Among those caught in the chaos were Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano (who had led a race-high 34 laps and claimed Stage 2), Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, and another 10 unfortunate souls.
The restart with three laps to go was short-lived. Cindric, leading the bottom lane, was shoved from behind and sent sideways on the backstretch into Berry, who had earlier scored his first Stage win. For the second week in a row, a NASCAR Cup car went airborne and flipped upside down. Berry’s car slid on its roof, smacking the inside wall before finally coming to a rest. NASCAR threw the red flag as safety crews rushed to the scene and slowly righted the car. Berry, to the relief of everyone, climbed out and gave a thumbs-up.
After a 6-minute red flag, Kyle Busch, desperate for a win, led a battered field of survivors into an overtime finish. An equally desperate lined up second. Coming into Turn 3, with a shove from Parker Retzlaff, Burton managed to clear Busch and held on to score his first career win by a mere .047 of a second.
“I cried the whole victory lap,” Burton confessed. “I got fired from this job, and I wanted to do everything I could for the Wood Brothers. They’ve given me an amazing opportunity in life. To get them their 100th win on my way out is amazing. And now we’re in the Playoffs.”
A heartbroken Busch had to settle for second, with Christopher Bell, Coy Ware, and Ty Gibbs rounding out the top five.
“From what I recall, we got off of Turn 2, and somehow the bottom lane just fell apart. We lost all our momentum, and the top lane just rolled,” Busch lamented. “Once they got in front, with as little energy as there was and the lack of cars, it was hard to make anything happen from Turn 4 to the start/finish line. Besides wrecking him, there was nothing else I could do.”
VIDEO: Daniel Suarez out of the car at Daytona after bizarre pit road fire
The race had begun with a rather sedate first stage, highlighted by Berry’s first-ever Stage win. But things took a bizarre and fiery turn during the pit stop cycle at the end of the Stage. Daniel Suarez, trailing flames, had his race come to an early end when Denny Hamlin’s Toyota belched fire, igniting spilled fuel under Suarez’s car. Despite a lap on the track the flames didn’t extinguish as expected, the car came back in as a fireball and Suarez was forced to retire for the night.
During a moment of calmness, something rare in a superspeedway race while racing side by side on lap 61 along the backstretch, a crash erupted when a shove from Corey LaJoie sent Noah Gragson into Ross Chastain, triggering a multi-car crash. When the dust settled, 17 cars bore the scars of battle, though only four were forced to retire.
Shane van Gisbergen, fresh off his announcement as Trackhouse Racing’s new third driver, saw his Daytona debut end in smoke on lap 80 when his Chevy’s engine expired. The same lap also claimed Erik Jones, who lost a tire and met the wall but managed to continue.
The early part of the final stage turned into a fuel-saving test, with the lead pack running single-file to conserve. Justin Haley, who had won this race five years ago, found himself leading as pit strategy loomed with 30 laps to go. But on lap 139, as the field formed three lanes, John Hunter Nemechek’s car was sent spinning by a shove from Kyle Larson, bringing out the night’s fifth caution and ending the fuel-saving game.
With fuel-only stops, Austin Cindric led the field off pit road, with Brad Keselowski in tow. But a restart violation doomed Keselowski, dropping him out of contention.
It all led to those chaotic final 10 laps and culminated in an emotional win for Harrison Burton.
“It’s amazing,” Burton said. “The last three years have been the hardest of my life, and for some of these guys too. To win the way we just did, beating the best in the business, Kyle Busch, is pretty fantastic.”
When the checkered flag finally waved, only 24 of the original 40-car field were still running. The NASCAR Playoff field will be set next Sunday night at the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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