NEWTON, Iowa — Harrison Burton had the race of his NASCAR Xfinity Series season at Iowa Speedway on Saturday (Aug. 2), and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Starting 17th, Burton scored five stage points, spent all 250 laps inside the top 15, recorded a season-best average running position of eighth and brought his No. 25 Ford home in fifth for his second top five of the year.
“Throughout the entire day, (had) a top-10 car, probably a seventh- or eighth-place car all day,” Burton told Frontstretch. “Had a strength to the field, like I could fire off better than most of the field (on restarts), and I had a weakness where I would fall off (on long runs).
“But with the strength, I could go be aggressive, get after it, restart well.”
He displayed that full strength during the final restart with 17 laps to go, as Burton found himself locked in a fierce battle with Jesse Love for the runner-up spot before ultimately fading to fifth by the time the checkered flag waved.
“Just a good day for us, points-wise obviously, but also for the people at our shop,” Burton said. “They work a lot of hours. I keep saying it every interview, but we probably have less people than most teams, and they’re working a crap ton of hours. Just makes me proud of those guys.”
All of the No. 25 team’s hard work paid off, and Burton now finds himself 17 points ahead of Ryan Sieg and 19 points ahead of cousin Jeb Burton in the battle for the final Xfinity playoff spot on points.
This position marks his best with the cut line in months, but with four races left in the regular season, he knows the battle is far from over.
“I think you just have to take it one week at a time,” Burton said. “We’ve been good at that, not looking ahead. It’s just all eyes on the next weekend.”
But Burton isn’t just thinking about points these next four races: he’s thinking about wins.
“In my head, we have to be aggressive, try to win one of these things because you never know,” Burton explained. “You could get a new winner.”
And no one knows better than Burton how much havoc an 11th-hour upset winner can wreak on an unsuspecting playoff battle.
“I was the dude that kind of ruined some people’s (Cup) seasons last year doing that, winning from behind in points,” Burton said. “So I’ve got to try to not let it happen to me (now).”
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf