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Harrison Burton picks up first win in K&N Series at Bristol

Rod Mullins

Young Harrison Burton played Saturday’s rained shortened Zombie Auto 125 NASCAR K&N Series race by the numbers and it didn’t take long for the alignment of events to begin for the DEX Imaging Toyota driver.

The race was the seventeenth career start for the son of former NASCAR Cup series driver and NBC/NASCAR commentator Jeff Burton.  Harrison is only sixteen years old but when the rains came after 70 laps at Bristol, the Huntersville, North Carolina driver was secure in the only position he needed to be when the rain started falling; in first place and the lead when track and NASCAR officials called the race.

“I was confident here in myself and my team to run well here and I’ve had this race circled on my calendar since last year, ” replied Burton after the race. “ I was pretty excited to come back and get the win,” Burton said.

Ruben Garcia would finish second with Spencer Davis in third, Hunter Baize in fourth and Chad Finchum driving the No. 39 Emory and Henry College/WEHC 90.7 FM Toyota rounding out the top five.

Burton started from the pole for the race after qualifying for the NASCAR K&N Series race was cancelled due to rain on Friday. Burton would lead all but a just few of the first 70 laps before the rain began to fall.

Burton said following the race that he felt like “every team circles this race on their calendar” and that his team wanted to run the whole race and win it that way.

“We were confident our car was good enough that we could win it that way. I feel like it would’ve been cool to cross the line in dry conditions. But, I’ll take it. I never wanted it to rain so bad in my life.”

Story by Rod Mullins/Augusta Free Press

Rod Mullins

Rod Mullins

Rod Mullins covers NASCAR for AFP, and co-hosts the mid-week “Street Knowledge” focusing on NASCAR with AFP editor Chris Graham. A graduate of UVA-Wise, Rod began his career in journalism as a reporter for The Cumberland Times, later became the program director/news director/on-air morning show host for WNVA in Norton, Va., and in the early 1990s served as the sports information director at UVA-Wise and was the radio “Voice of the Highland Cavaliers” for football and basketball for seven seasons. In 1995, Rod transitioned to public education, where he has worked as a high school English, literature, and creative writing teacher and now serves as a school program coordinator in addition to serving as a mentor for the robotics team.