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The 2024 season was one Harrison Burton would like to forget about quickly.
The 24-year-old NASCAR driver finished 16th in the Cup standings, leading to his departure from Wood Brothers Racing. He did have a win at Daytona International in the Coke Zero 400, but as he put it, “by that point, it’s too late.”
That win was just one of his two top-10 finishes last season, but with a fresh start in the Xfinity Series, Burton has found it again.
This season, now as a member of AM Racing, he already has six top-10s, including each of his last three races.
“That was the best landing spot for me to be a better racecar driver, go to a team that really was rebuilding from square one,” Burton told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. “They saw a vision to rebuild around me and had to put the ball in my court and said, ‘hey, if you want to drive for us, we’ll kind of help put a team together that you are a part of.’ So that was really fun for me to kind of build this thing up and take a team like AM Racing that had all the want and will in the world to go contend and lead and run well.
“Right now, we’re sitting inside the playoffs, we’re starting to get some momentum going, and I think it’ll just get better and better and better. So it was a great opportunity to kind of go back, rebuild up my stock a little bit.”
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Fans now have an opportunity to get a closer look at Burton, as he’s featured in Netflix’s “Full Speed,” which, like “Drive to Survive” and “Full Swing,” gives a full behind-the-scenes look at the ins and outs of NASCAR and its athletes.
“Just the concept and idea behind ‘Full Speed’ is something that when I heard the first season was coming out, it was super cool and I think good for our sport and good to get more knowledge about what we do out there and the people that are in our sport out there and all that was awesome,” Burton said.
“The thing that’s so hard to explain to people is if I pick up a football or basketball, I know I’m not an NFL or NBA guy – it’s apparent pretty quick. There’s no racecar for you to go drive to see what we do. And so, the best way to kind of explain it and do all that is get the media out there and get an inside look at what it’s really like, and I think that is super cool and what’s a good opportunity about this documentary in general.”
Now, Burton wants fans to see him inside the winner’s circle again. Of course, that is not easy in NASCAR, with fields of dozens of drivers, and only one of them truly happy every Sunday.
“It’s hard. It’s such a hard mental battle, right? It’s like golf in that way where, you know, you’ve got all these other people, and you’re not 50-50 odds to win the game. You’re one in 40, maybe even longer depending on the day. It’s tough,” Burton said. “It’s always hard to evaluate [success], but the biggest thing for me is progress.
“Did I get better? Did I do a better job here? Am I a better racecar driver going into next year? Everyone wants to win, but it’s about, what are you going to do to win? What are the sacrifices you’re going to make or the work you’re going to put in to win? There’s no blueprint to success other than that. That’s the biggest thing. and what is, you know, the sacrifices you’re gonna make or the work you’re gonna put in to win? That’s the biggest thing.”
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