Daytona International Speedway has created yet another magical moment.
Harrison Burton won his first career NASCAR Cup Series race in overtime after getting by Kyle Busch on the final restart and rocketing in front of the field via a backstretch push from Parker Retzlaff to earn a spot in the playoffs.
Burton scored Wood Brothers Racing’s 100th win and earned his first victory in 98 starts.
“I cried the whole victory lap,” Burton told NBC post-race. “Got fired from his job, and … I wanted to do everything for the Wood brothers that I could; they’ve given me an amazing opportunity in life. To get them 100 on my way out is amazing.
“We’re in the playoffs now. Let’s go to Darlington [Raceway] and see what happens.”
Busch finished second behind the No. 21. He gave a big push to Burton coming to the line, but the son of Jeff Burton held on to his Ford Mustang, beating the Richard Childress Racing No. 8 Chevrolet by .047 seconds.
Christopher Bell recovered from wrecks to finish third, and Cody Ware earned his first top five, finishing fourth. Ty Gibbs completed the top five.
Bubba Wallace, Retzlaff, Brad Keselowski, Daniel Hemric and Chris Buescher rounded out the top 10.
The end of the race had two major wrecks that changed the running order and contenders significantly.
Josh Berry and Austin Cindric battled hard side-by side for the lead with two to go, but after a push by Busch, Cindric turned into Berry and both spun in the newly paved infield. Berry flipped and went straight to the inside wall as others in the field were collected behind.
Berry wasn’t the only one to take flight. The second Big One of the day shaped a final showdown as the leader and polesitter Michael McDowell got lose after a push from Cindric and went airborne in front of the pack, nearly flipping.
The airborne McDowell collected multiple contenders, including Wallace, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Justin Haley, Ryan Blaney and multiple others — 14 in total.
McDowell took the lead to start the final stage, but Haley made a key move to join Cindric on the bottom and fly by the polesitter. He controlled the lead for a majority of the longest green-flag run of the day.
However, as green flag pit stops approached, John Hunter Nemechek and Busch battled three wide with Haley for the lead. With 21 laps to go, the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota spun on the backstretch to bring out the caution, setting up final pit stops.
The first Big One happened in stage two, featuring Ross Chastain, who lost some momentum, checking up Noah Gragson and causing Corey LaJoie to to end up spinning the No. 10, collecting almost half the field, including Chastain.
Others notables involved whose days essentially ended were Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Ryan Preece.
A couple of bizarre incidents happened at the same time shortly after, as first Erik Jones, and Martin Truex Jr., both involved in the Big One, both experienced flat tires at the same time. A few seconds later, Shane van Gisbergen, running in the top 10 in the Kaulig No. 16 Chevy, smoke-screened the backstretch via an engine failure to trigger a much-needed caution for the two Toyotas.
On pit road, Daniel Suarez pitted after stage one, and Hamlin got trapped behind him while trying to pull out. As Hamlin burned out to try to leave his pit, he sparked a fuel fire that arced into Suarez’s fuel cell, causing a massive fire in the back of his car and forcing him out of the race.
Cup Daytona Results
The final race of the regular season will be on Labor Day weekend at Darlington Raceway. It’ll be held on Sunday, Sept. 1, at 6 p.m. ET, airing on USA Network.
Wyatt Watson has followed NASCAR closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretchas a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt writes breaking NASCAR news and contributes to columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monster. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media and serves as an at-track reporter, collecting exclusive content for Frontstretch.
Wyatt Watson can be found on X @WyattGametime