Harrison Burton’s profile on the social media platform “X” reads: “Wheelman for AM Racing #SomethingToProve.”
While the “something to prove” part has been there for several years, the AM Racing bit is just a couple of months old.
The two descriptors being placed together, although not intentional on Burton’s part, couldn’t be more appropriate.
Demoted to the NASCAR Xfinity Series for 2025 with little-known AM Racing after three mostly frustrating years in the NASCAR Cup Series with Wood Brothers Racing, Burton is essentially starting over at age 24.
Though his surroundings might be different this season, his personal slogan has stuck.
“It’s not particular to this year, but it applies well to this year, where you see these people in sports and other areas of life that get written off and they find a way to come back and surprise a lot of people,” said Burton, the son of 21-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner-turned NASCAR on NBC race announcer Jeff Burton. “That type of mindset of having something to prove when you walk into every race track is the right place to be as a competitor. I’ve been really fortunate to talk to a lot of really, really, really good race car drivers over the years, and they’re all not comfortable.
“You talk to Joey Logano, and he feels like he’s racing for his job every time he gets in the race car – and he’s a three – Cup Series champion now. His mindset on that is something that’s stuck out, and I think that applies well to how I want to model myself. All of the elite drivers are that way. I think keeping that hunger is really important.”
Despite grabbing his first Cup Series win as a lame-duck driver in the final stretch of his run with the Wood Brothers, Burton still has a ton to prove both to himself and those who question why he struggled so badly for most of his time in the Cup Series.
Burton himself has a hard time understanding exactly what went wrong as he recorded only six top-10 finishes – including just two top-five results – in 108 starts as a full-time driver.
“That’s a good question. It’s not an easy answer,” the second-generation driver said. “Racing is hard that way, where, man, you can look in a million different directions and think it’s this or that, or think it’s yourself or something else. What I’ve always tried to do and what I’ll continue to try to do is just look internally. ‘What could I have done better?’
“I don’t know that it was one thing where you could say, ‘I didn’t have this resource.’ I think racing is more complicated than that, which makes it really hard. But all I can do is just try to be the best driver I can be. Early on, it was just, honestly, a lack of confidence. And then once I got that confidence, the results started to show. It just took probably longer than it needed to, and now we’re here.”
Buried deep in the Cup Series standings and needing nothing less than a win to make the 2024 playoffs, Burton delivered in thrilling fashion during August at Daytona International Speedway, when he outdueled two-time series champion Kyle Busch for the victory on the final lap.
Although Burton’s late-race heroics gave Wood Brothers Racing its long-awaited landmark 100th win in NASCAR’s premier series, it was too little too late for Burton to salvage his ride.
A little less than two months before Burton went to Victory Lane, the Wood Brothers announced that Stewart-Haas Racing driver Josh Berry would replace Burton in the team’s iconic No. 21 Ford for 2025.
The news, though hard for Burton swallow, served as motivation for him to finish 2024 on a strong note. And he did, not only winning at Daytona but recording some of his better finishes and qualifying runs in the season’s final weeks.
That success, even more than his four wins over two full seasons as an Xfinity Series driver prior to joining the Cup Series, fuels Burton’s belief that he can excel in his new gig with a largely unproven team.
“My time in the Xfinity Series seems so long ago,” said Burton, who drove in NASCAR’s No. 2 division for Joe Gibbs Racing. “I don’t even remember a lot of the details of what I did well or didn’t do well in certain races. I remember the key moments of the race and certain things about the race cars and whatnot, but I don’t have like this big memory bank of it. I’ve just kind of always moved on to the next week.
“I know I can do it. I have trophies in my trophy case that say I can do it at this level, and there is comfort in that. But I think I really draw more from the Cup experience and having raced those guys for three years and gotten better and learned a lot. I’ll try to bring that to the Xfinity Series and maintain that level of attention to detail that it takes to run well.”
After learning he wouldn’t be retained by the Wood Brothers and later receiving a phone call from AM Racing team president Wade Moore about joining the team for 2025, Burton wasn’t initially sold on the idea. The small Statesville, North Carolina-based team enjoyed few highlights – which included 11 top-10s but no wins and just one top-five – over its two full seasons of Xfinity competition after competing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series from 2016-2022.
“I didn’t know much about the race team,” Burton said, recalling his initial conversation with Moore. “I knew they had had some ups and downs, but I really didn’t know what to make of it. But when he started talking about the resources we’re going to have and the type of people we’re going to try and go after and that I would be a part of it, all of a sudden it started to grow on me, and I was like, ‘Damn, that sounds really fun. That sounds like something I want to do.’
“Once they kind of laid out the vision of, ‘Hey, this is what it’s going to be, we want you to be a part of it,’ it felt like one of the best options out there.”
Two of AM Racing’s top-10 finishes in the Xfinity Series have come courtesy of Logano, who made three appearances for the organization last season in addition to his job as full-time driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford in the Cup Series.
Logano, who last season captured his third Cup Series title, has been a quasi-teammate of Burton’s the last three years through the close alliance between the Wood Brothers Racing and Team Penske. Among the topics that Burton and Logano have discussed is Logano’s experience in his cameo role with AM Racing.
“I got kind of the firsthand account of what happened in all the races, what needs to improve, what he thought they did well, and where the potential was,” Burton said. “He felt like there was potential there. Obviously, when you put Joey Logano in your Xfinity car, you want to the win the race, but I think the growth they have shown the last few years is really important – and the commitment to getting better throughout each week and each hiring cycle and getting the right people.”
Since signing with AM Racing in September, Burton has become even more bullish about his decision.
“I’ve been going to the shop a lot, and I walk in and have a lot of confidence in the people that are in there,” he said. “So, it’s exciting for me to walk in and feel like we’re going to show up prepared and our guys really care about what they’re doing and the level of detail that it takes to run well at this level.
“The Xfinity Series is not the Cup Series, but it’s one of the most competitive racing series in the world. Understanding that this isn’t going to be easy, and understanding the detail it takes is awesome to be a part of. And it’s awesome to see that culture getting built, especially in the early stages of the race team.”
Although Burton is focused on making the most of his opportunity in the Xfinity Series, he makes no bones about his desire to eventually get back to the Cup Series and be a top performer there.
Although somewhat rare, it’s not unprecedented for drivers to move up from the Xfinity Series into a Cup Series ride, fall back to the Xfinity Series for a time and ultimately return to the Cup Series – once they’ve proven themselves.
“That’s what I want to do, and everyone at AM feels the same way,” Burton said. “They want it to be a platform for drivers to grow their careers and move on and do great things.”
