Harrison Burton is looking ahead to Saturday night’s Orange Blossom 300 at Orange County Speedway a disappointing run in the inaugural Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Super Late Model Tour race at Southern National Motorsports Park.
Burton is the 14-year-old son of former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver and current NBC Sports analyst Jeff Burton. Prior to racing in the CARS Tour, Burton made starts in the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) Super Late Model Tour and in the Southern Super Series. The performance at Southern National on March 28th caught the Huntersville, North Carolina teenager by surprise since he has logged a lot of laps around the 4/10-mile oval in Lucama, North Carolina.
“We kind of unloaded and weren’t really where we needed to be with the fast cars like Christopher Bell and Cole Timm,” Burton said. “They could roll the center quicker than us. It really showed up at nighttime when they could roll the corner and be straight off the corner and save tires where I had to put a lot of wheel into it. We worked really hard and tried to adjust, never really got the car there. We had a problem later in the race and are not sure what it was. It’s how racing is. You have to bounce back.”
Bouncing back is exactly what Burton, who scored his first career Super Late Model win at New Smyrna Speedway in February, hopes to do. Burton has experience at Rougemont, North Carolina’s Orange County Speedway in the PASS South tour.
“We definitely have a chance if we stay on top of our game and give it our best effort,” Burton remarked. “We have a chance to win. You never know. Racing is an interesting thing. It’s not just how good your team is but how they adapt to things. You unload and sometimes things happen. They’ll work hard and rebound. I’m sure we’ll have a good car. We’ll do some testing. After Southern National, we’ll hit the track hard and test hard and try to improve.”
While Burton says he and his team intend to test more, Burton does not feel his struggles at Southern National could be attributed to a lack of testing time. Burton feels the open practice being rained out hurt everybody equally and said that testing too much could actually hurt the team mentally.
“We couldn’t make it to the test,” Burton explained. “We have had a lot of experience at Southern National so it was strange we didn’t run as well. That’s the first track I was ever in a Late Model in so it was kind of a surprise … We could have had all the more time to improve there. The rain hurt us but I felt like everyone’s in the same boat other than the people who tested there before.
“Sometimes if you test too much, you overthink it. Cole Timm’s guys, they worked hard at the shop. I’m sure it’s a new setup there. Everyone’s always trying to evolve … he was in a league of his own and it’s a testament to his guys. Our guys work really hard but we kind of missed it there.”
When asked if the American Racer tires could have contributed to the team’s performance woes, Burton said he absolutely did not feel the tires were the problem.
“I feel like a lot of people exaggerate the tires,” Burton commented. “They’re round, black and have rubber. They’re harder to break in but that didn’t affect us in the race. Everyone struggled in qualifying a little bit but everyone’s in the same boat. Hard to point at one thing and say it’s why we ran bad. I don’t think it was.”
Being the son of a former NASCAR driver, Harrison Burton has been in the spotlight ever since he started racing. While having a name might put more expectations on Burton in the eyes of the fans and the media, the 14-year-old feels being a second-generation driver is a good thing.
“Having a dad that races helps anyone,” Burton stated. “They can relate to you and the problems you’ve been through. Everyone has bad days in racing. The best have bad days too. It’s just part of racing. He always says you’ve got to treat every race like you always want to win but you don’t want to do something stupid on the 50th lap and wreck. He helps me practice. He helps me communicate with the guys better. He’s been a really good influence with me and anyone he’s around. He’s a great dad.”
The Orange Blossom 300 at Orange County Speedway will be held on Saturday, April 18th. RACE22.com will have up to the minute coverage on our website and on Twitter. Along with RACE22.com’s digital coverage, RACEFEEDX.com will have live, streaming video coverage of the Orange Blossom 300.
