Harrison Burton on the Bad Luck Bug, Meeting Michael Jordan & Thoughts on the Wood Brothers

Harrison Burton has had a tough first season with Sam Hunt Racing, but a lot of it has been out of his and the team’s control.

Whenever something goes wrong this year in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, it seems to happen right in front of Burton’s No. 24. He has six DNFs to only three top 10s one year after making the playoffs (now The Chase) with AM Racing, which is no longer around.

Burton did get to return to a NASCAR Cup Series seat this year, filling in for Riley Herbst in the No. 35 23XI Racing car at the summer Daytona International Speedway race, the very race where Burton scored his lone Cup win with Wood Brothers Racing two years earlier.

Frontstretch caught up with Burton at Bristol Motor Speedway to discuss the bad luck bug, the experience of filling in for Herbst, his plans for next year and how he views WBR now.

Watch the interview here or read it below.

Michael Massie, Frontstretch: You’ve had a lot of bad luck this season. How would you summarize the season so far?

Harrison Burton: Yeah, it’s been frustrating. I think our guys work a tremendous amount and put a lot of effort in. I’m proud to show up to the racetrack with this group of guys. There’s been some times that we’ve had really good runs, times we haven’t and then there’s been a lot of in-between where it’s kind of uncontrollable stuff, where we’ll have a good car and get taken out or maybe we make a mistake on pit road or I make a mistake on the racetrack.

It’s been one of those years, man, where the bad luck bug jumps on you and you have to just fight through it. We’ve done a good job of that. We kind of had another bad luck last weekend [at World Wide Technology Raceway] with the pit-road stack-up taking us out, but that’s just how racing is. Sometimes, it’s mean to you. Sometimes, it’s nice to you, and you just have to survive till it starts being nice again.

Massie: I feel like your points position doesn’t reflect how good you’ve actually been this year. Where do you think you would stack up against like some of those bigger teams like JR Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing?

Burton: Yeah, it’s obviously a challenge, right? Anytime you’re a smaller team without an alliance, it’s really hard. The field in the O’Reilly Series has never been tougher than it is now. I think back to when I was at JGR [Joe Gibbs Racing], there was never a thought of missing the playoffs at JGR. And now this year, you see some guys that miss it. Some of that is they’ve had bad luck, but some of it is also the field is so strong with a lot of alliance teams, a lot of guys that have gotten better. So it’s a challenge, man, and it makes it fun to watch.

I know that the team that we have here has won a lot of races individually. We’re all talented and ready to roll, and it’s been, like you said, an up-and-down year for us, so that challenge makes it exciting. It’s hard to say straight up. I think we need a little bit of speed, obviously, but we’re not far off.

That’s the thing that’s frustrating. You’re a tenth off here, a tenth-and-a-half off there, and your day can go from top five to 15th with as tight as this field is.

Massie: Last year, you made The Chase. The field wasn’t as tough as it is now, but you were with a team [AM Racing] where the people that drove before you didn’t do as well as you did, and that team doesn’t even exist now. So do you feel like that really gave you an opportunity to show your talent in not the best situation?

Burton: Yeah, I mean, obviously, I was really fortunate. We had good people, and we were a small team again. But you look at the crew chief, Danny Efland, I think a lot of him. He’s on Parker Retzlaff‘s car [this year]. They’re running well.

We had a lot of turnover too. Last year, other than me, the crew chief and spotter, everyone else on the roster changed throughout the year. I think by week eight or nine, we had a full new race team, so it was like holy cow and trying to get everyone up to speed. I think we overcame a lot of adversity, so that was cool. But it takes a team. As much as it is good for my ego to say, ‘Oh, it was a smaller team and, unfortunately, it doesn’t exist anymore and we ran good.’

That’s good for a driver’s ego, but also, that’s a discredit to the people that worked really hard behind the scenes that I was fortunate enough to have a part in and work with and go execute good on race days. I think the same about this team. We have a lot of guys that, when we run good, the spotlight goes to me. It doesn’t go to them, and I wish it was a little bit more even for the guys that work their butts off day in and day out.

Massie: A couple of weeks ago, you had the chance to to fill in for Riley Herbst. How did that opportunity come about for you to end up in that car?

Burton: Yeah, I knew it was a possibility. I stay every single week. I’m at every Cup race with Legacy Motor Club. I’m their reserve driver and 23XI’s as well. So I kind of knew maybe there would be a chance this year, and then I knew Riley maybe wasn’t feeling the best. So that week, we had a good idea that there was about a 50-50 shot that I would race. He woke up the day of the race and didn’t feel great, and I got a call at about noon that day. It was like, “Hey, you’re in.”

I was in Bass Pro Shops, buying a fishing rod. I was gonna fish in Lake Lloyd. I was walking with my buddy Todd over there, and we both hauled ass back to the racetrack because I needed to go get fitted in that racecar.

So that was a lot of fun. Obviously, I’ve been friends with Riley since we were 14 years old, and it was sad to see him be hurt. But also personally, it’s a great opportunity to get to just drive with that group. I know Michael Jordan now, and stuff like that is cool. Just a cool opportunity and one that I was really grateful for.

Massie: How was the interaction with MJ?

Burton: He knew more about me than I thought, so that was cool. I was so impressed with his buy-in to our sport. He’s a guy that could do anything in the world he wants to do, and he spends his Sundays sitting in one of these chairs, outside of the 23XI hauler, hanging out. He knew all about my whole career. He knew how I ran the night before in the O’Reilly race. He knew every single thing, and that was really cool.

Massie: Probably a little nerve-wracking too, I guess.

Burton: Yeah, absolutely. I’ve been really fortunate, growing up around my dad and meeting a lot of cool people. I’ve never been nervous to meet someone before until it was Michael Jordan, and then you’re nervous for sure.

Massie: Most importantly, though, did you get to go fishing at all that weekend?

Burton: No, my plans were canceled. I had a rod in my hands. I was gonna buy like a travel fishing rod and take it with me race to race and put it back on the shelf and ran out of there. So no fishing, but that’s all right. I’ll find another time. Not every day you get to race for Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan, so I’d take that over fishing.

Massie: Denny’s a guy that could hook you up with some fishing stuff now, right?

Burton: Yeah, we’ve been bass fishing in a couple of charity events together, and he’s bought into it too. He loves it, so that’s always fun.

Massie: In that race, you got to try to defend your Daytona win finally. How was it getting back in a Cup car, and did it kind of give you an itch to maybe get back there someday?

Burton: Yeah, absolutely. It was fun. It was really cool. It was different than the last time I was in the Cup car, just with all the aero changes and really the field has gotten better and they know how to take advantage of every little thing. The Cup field, if you’re not a part of it, all those drivers are getting better and better and better. And I thought it was really fun to see kind of where I would stack up, and it’s Daytona, so it’s a different style of racing, but I got a 12th, so that was decent. But I obviously wanted to win again, but just didn’t work out that way.

Massie: Where are you at on your plans for next year?

Burton: Yeah, it’s still in the works. A lot’s up in the air for me. I’ve got a lot of great partners and people that believe in me and race teams that believe in me. It’s just about making all of those puzzle pieces fit together. So I don’t have anywhere that I know I’m going yet. I have nothing signed. I do feel confident I’ll drive something, so that’s good. I’ll have a job. I just don’t know what it is yet, and whatever it is, I’m excited to go make the most out of that opportunity.

Massie: The No. 21 car. The Wood Brothers put another driver in there, didn’t do much better than you. They’re already making another driver change. Does that vindicate you at all as a driver?

Burton: That’s a hard question to answer because I love the Wood Brothers. I love that family. I still, every week, I go stop by their hauler. I love all the guys on the race team. A percentage of the guys that were there when I was there are still there. Crew chief and engineer and all that’s different, but I know those guys. They were in the system when I was there.

So I have a lot of mixed emotions about it, because obviously as a competitor, you want to be the best driver, right? And so when someone tells you they’re gonna go a different direction, it’s hurtful to that part of you, but I also have so much love for that group that it’s hard for me to root against them. Like when the 21 runs good, I feel happy for them. So I don’t know that I feel vindicated, and Josh [Berry] has done a good job the last few weeks especially. I mean, they’ve been rolling.

So I think I like to look at myself internally, what could I have done different and learn from it and just move on. That’s a different race team now, and I know a lot of guys there and support those guys.

Massie: I’ll send you out with a more fun one. I’ve got your cousin Jeb next. Is there one question I should ask your cousin Jeb?

Burton: Ask him how it feels getting beat by his little cousin every year. That’s all you gotta say.

For Jeb Burton’s response to that question, click the link below.