Nice to see him have a solid run.
Jeb Burton Quietly Scores Top-10 Finish
By Ashley McCubbin
While the focus was on the Kyle (Busch) and Kyle (Larson) show, Jeb Burton ran inside the top 10 through Saturday’s entire Heads Up Georgia 250 en route to finishing 10th.
After starting 15th, Burton made his way into the top 10 in the early stages of the race, before prevailing through strategy.
When the caution flew during green flag pit stops around Lap 50, Burton was one of the drivers that had yet to make his way down pit road, allowing him to take advantage of the track position.
Burton remained in the top 10 throughout the rest of the race, cracking the top five on a couple of occasions, before crossing the finish line for his second career top-10 finish.
The Virginia native said his speed was due to a couple of late changes made during the final XFINITY practice yesterday.
“Right at the end we changed some things in the front end, and it helped us,” he said. “I wish we could have unloaded like that, and we would have been a lot better, but we were about a 10th to 15th place car in practice, and Drew (Blickensderfer) worked really hard, and all the guys worked really hard and made some adjustments.”
The day might have gone even better, though, if the race finished with a longer run versus a couple of back-to-back restarts.
“The longer we went, the tighter we got,” Burton said. “It seemed like later in the day we just kept getting tighter and tighter. I’m really proud of the guys.”
After racing the majority of last season for BK Racing, Burton spent most of this off-season searching for a ride. Only about a week before the season began, Burton learned he would race for Richard Petty Motorsports on a full-time basis.
“They worked really hard this week, considering 14 days ago this team didn’t exist,” he said. “I’m really proud of that, and I feel like we’ll get better each week.”
Burton added that he’s a little surprised by the early success, but was confident in the team based on how hard they were working. The confidence resulted partly from watching Dakoda Armstrong finish 12th in the series standings last year with six top-15 finishes.
“I’ve got a great team, and we’re gonna keep getting better,” he said. “I’m thankful for the opportunity. I’m thankful for J. Streicher and Rocky Ridge on board, and I’m looking forward to getting to Vegas.”
Jeb Burton Quietly Scores Top-10 Finish – POPULAR SPEED
