This weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, 18-year-old Harrison Burton will make his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut. The teenager will take the next step, driving the No. 18 Toyota Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing on April 6 in the Alsco 300. It will be the first of eight races this season for the young driver, a schedule announced Monday (April 1) through a Facebook live video on the Joe Gibbs Racing page.
Burton’s eight slated contests in 2019 will be at Bristol, Iowa (June 16), New Hampshire (July 20), Richmond (Sept. 20), Charlotte’s Roval (Sept. 28), Dover (Oct. 5), Kansas (Oct. 19) and Texas (Nov. 2).
“Harrison continues to impress at each level of his racing career,” Steve DeSouza, executive vice president of Xfinity Series and development for Joe Gibbs Racing, said. “Ben (Beshore, crew chief) has the No. 18 team off to a strong start this season and we believe Harrison will continue that momentum for us starting at Bristol.”
Burton will have DEX Imaging, which has backed him for several years, on the car during those eight races.
“It is going to be a life-changing experience for me,” Burton said during the live-streamed JGR announcement. “I’ve been working my whole life for this.”
Currently, Burton drives for Kyle Busch Motorsports in NASCAR’s Gander Outdoors Truck Series full-time and sits ninth in the series standings through the first five races. His best career finish is third (twice), which came at Iowa and ISM Raceway last season.
Harrison is the son of former longtime NASCAR driver and current NBC Sports analyst Jeff Burton.
Brandon is a 22-year-old from NY and has been a passionate follower of motorsports for 14 years now. He recently graduated from Molloy College on Long Island with a BA in Communications. Working within NASCAR has been a dream for Brandon for a while, and he hopes to be able to live out the dream in the very near future.