CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Harrison Burton is making the most of it.
Just prior to the Fourth of July Burton learned he would not return to drive the Wood Brothers Racing Ford after the conclusion of this season because the team had not performed up to expectations.
But one victory made all the difference in the world and Burton and company are chasing the NASCAR Cup Series championship beginning Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Burton was 34th in points when he made a last-lap surge to win the Aug. 24 Cup Series race at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway and earn a place in the playoffs.
It was the first Cup Series victory for the 23-year-old second-generation driver and the milestone 100th triumph for the historic Wood Brothers Racing operation.
“It is a whole new season for us,” Burton said during playoff media day on Wednesday. “Everything that happened before hand doesn’t matter and we are just going forward from here. Hopefully, it’s going to be a new-look 21 car and we are excited for that.
“You can’t help but look at where we were in points, look at how our season had gone, look at the fact that I was on the way out of my job because the performance wasn’t there,” he continued. “I love them and they love me as a person, but we didn’t perform the way we needed to. Now, we have this great opportunity to reset all of that. We have a great opportunity to be born again.
“It’s like it’s a whole new season. That is a great opportunity in sports. It’s a great opportunity in life really. Going to make the most of that. My race team is making the most of it,” Burton added. “I was at the shop on the way here and those guys are fired up. It is so fun to be part of a team that is fighting for something like we are and we are going to use that energy in a positive way.”
Burton is still looking for work for next season, but is focusing his energy on the playoffs.
“It’s very fluid. Every day I hear something different,” he said. “At this point I am just focused on the races I have ahead of me because you never know if you’ll have a chance like this again. I want to make the most of this opportunity in the Cup Series playoffs. It is just so hard to get to this spot in the sport, so we will make the most of this and we will see where the cards fall after that.”
Burton believes his No. 21 Ford team will feed off the ramped up playoff energy.
“The heightened intensity for our team is going to be really good, I think our group is built for that,” he explained. “We have all been through different kinds of scenarios through our careers where we had to pull through in big moments. We showed we could do that at Daytona with everything on the line. Now we just need to continue that confidence and we will see what happens.”