Harrison Burton Wins Biggest Race of His Young Career at New Smyrna

13 year old Harrison Burton drove beyond his years to his biggest win to date, a 100 lap Pro Late Model race part of the New Smyrna World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing.

The son of accomplished NASCAR driver Jeff Burton has shown he can win already in his short Late Model driving career. However, a 100 lap race victory has now been added to his list of accolades.

Harrison climbed out and immediately hugged his mom Kim, who was in tears during such a joyous moment. Jeff was also in victory lane along with crew chief Freddie Query, who has tutored many drivers along the way in recent years.

Burton was second to veteran Brad May in time trials, but the invert was a two putting Burton on the pole. The high side seemed to be the advantageous spot to have though, and May would propel into the early lead.

Burton would continue to stay with May, a driver with many laps at the half-mile driving for David Rogers who quite possibly has the most laps of experience, throughout the opening laps.

Caution would not fly until lap 29, but red would soon fly a few laps later when the backstretch became a parking lot. Illinois driver Tim Sargent got out of shape coming out of turn two and several cars were collected.

On the restart, May chose the outside. Besides taking a few peeks under May, Burton would continue to follow closely using a similar line.

That was until lap 77 when Burton dove low and cleared May coming out of turn four. Burton began to check out, but the field would bunch up again on lap 89. Kevyn Terry’s car suddenly went left out of turn two and hit the inside water barrels, the second time this occurred on this evening. Another multi-car wreck involving contenders Garrett Jones, Daniel Keene Jr., and Pro Late Model point leader coming into the race Spencer Davis would slow the field one last time.

On the final restart, Burton chose the outside line and cleared May en route to the win. Burton attributed the win to conserving the tires.

“In the 100 lap races there is always tire wear so that was a big factor; waiting for the right time,” Burton said. “That’s why we were able to put a big lead at the end after being able to get by because we were able to take care of our tires. We did all the right things and put ourselves in position to win.”

May, Anderson Bowen, Alex Guenette, and Sheldon Creed completed the top five. Davis maintains a ten point lead over Jones with Burton and May still within striking distance with two nights of racing remaining.

2013 World Series Super Late Model champion Ryan Moore picked up his first win of 2014 in a 35 lap race. Multi-time winner Stephen Nasse continues in the point lead with Night 2 winner Steve Wallace five points behind and the only other driver with a legitimate shot at the championship.

Justin Bonsignore paced a healthy field of Tour-Type Modifieds in a 35 lapper and sets up what should be a very competitive Richie Evans Memorial 100 on Friday night. It will also serve as the championship event for the division, with Ryan Preece leading Ron Silk by just two points.

A post-race interview with Pro Late Model 100 winner Harrison Burton can be found below.