Harrison Burton Looking To Close Out in Greenville

GREENVILLE, S.C. :: Harrison Burton entered the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East with a considerable amount of fanfare and promise but has yet to post the results he expected of himself through the first two events of his debut season.

The reasons are not so much performance-based as it is a matter of bad luck and circumstance. Burton was fast at both New Smyrna Speedway and Mobile International Speedway but misfortune denied him good finishes at both tracks.

It’s been somewhat disheartening for the team because Burton was capable of winning at both venues. The 15-year-old son of Jeff Burton arrived at both short tracks with a ton of Super Late Model experience and figured himself to be one of the favorites.

At New Smyrna, Burton was fastest in practice but missed a corner in qualifying and started ninth. He spent the evening dodging crashes and was held up in traffic on the way to a 13th-place finish. He was again fast in Mobile but was fighting a cold and was forced to start on the outside on several occasions on a day where that line just wasn’t working.

He finished seventh and is eighth in the standings in advance of Saturday night at Greenville Pickens Speedway. Burton doesn’t expect to change the way he approaches theses K&N races and again expects to contend, especially after a recent open test.

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“I feel very confident,” Burton said. “We had an open test down there with all the HScott Motorsport cars and some other teams. We were consistently with the top guys so I feel very confident.

“I’m confident in myself and my team to put a good race car under me and I do think we deserved a better finish in Mobile. I think we’ll get it in Greenville too, as long as I keep my head on straight and do the things I’m supposed to.”

In order for Burton to get that result, he knows he will have to both qualify well and catch a lucky break during single-car time trials. Greenville is a flat one-groove short track and it’s vitally important to start on the bottom. In that sense, it’s better to qualify third or fifth rather than second or fourth.

“I think qualifying is huge,” Burton said. “I think being on the bottom for restarts will be huge too. There is going to be some strategy there. So if you’re riding and trying to save tires, you’re going to want be fifth rather than sixth.”

All told, Burton is just excited to compete in the Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 150, especially given the NASCAR history at Greenville Pickens.

“I’m looking forward to getting back on track with the Pro Series at Greenville,” Burton. “All four HScott cars finished in the top-10 at Mobile and I expect us all to be competitive again this weekend. This is a track that has a lot of NASCAR history. It would be cool to add my name to the winner’s list there.”

The complete entry list for the Kevin Whitaker 150 can be found below.