‘I think there’s room there to do it,’ Harrison Burton is confident about fighting for the 2022 Rookie of the Year Award and his first career Cup Series win
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Harrison Burton (Via IMAGO)
With Radical changes and the Next-Gen cars, NASCAR introduced this season it is only fair to say that the competition in the grid has shown appreciable progress, though the season is still just $ rounds in we already have 2 first time winners and a rookie winner which shows that with a competitive car anyone can challenge the front runners.
The season opener Daytona 500 was won by rookie Austin Cindric which was his first Cup Series Win whereas the last race in Phoenix witnessed Chase Briscoe securing his first win in the championship event. There has also been incredible comebacks and strong performance from the likes of Daniel Suarez and co, which showcase the intense competition.
Harrison Burton vying for top rookie honors with Team Penske’s Austin Cindric and Front Row Motorsports’ Todd Gilliland in 2022. The young gun is having his first year with the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 team, which is owned by his father, and has recently expressed his views on potentially winning the 2023 Rookie of the Year Award.
Find out what Harrison Burton had to say on competing for the Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award
Harrison Burton reveals the Rookie of the year award is an inside joke among them nowadays which helps them to gain some minor competitive edge. He went on to say Austin Cindric’s win at the season opener Daytona 500 made the competition harder for the season debutants. Harrison Burton added that a win is achievable if you have a good day pointing to the fact that there already have been two first-time winners to date this season.
“We’ve had a lot of fun with it. It’s been fun to kind of go back and forth and joke around with each other about it and use it as some competitive edge. And then Austin goes off and wins the first race of the year, and that kind of made it harder for us because then we had to go match that,” Harrison Burton said.
“So, which is cool, it’s exciting. I mean, there’s been a lot of new winners this year. Every race has had a different winner, and there have been some first-time winners with Austin and Chase (Briscoe), and (Daniel) Suarez was close. So, I think there’s room there to do it. You’re just going to have to have a spectacular day,” Harrison Burton added.
“It’s a lot of unknown,” Harrison Burton on New Atlanta track
Harrison Burton acknowledged that there is a lot of uncertainties to go around with the newly configurated Atlanta track which makes its return on this Sunday and the Lack of efficient data makes it harder for teams to come up with ideas. He went on to say that he expects the team to pull out some amazing ideas as 2022 so has been about challenging the radical changes coming their way.
“Yeah, it’s a lot of unknown, that’s for sure. It’s more unknown than known, and especially for us not having gone to the (previous tire) test, it’s pretty hard to know what to prepare. It’s kind of its animal now, so what race do you watch to prepare? What do you do to study? What can you do? There have been some theories that we’ve had, and we’re certainly trying to prepare just as hard as we normally would, but it’s hard without a lot of material,” says Harrison Burton.
“So, there’s a lot of unknowns, and I’m expecting it to be a challenging race because of that. A lot of learning on the fly, but you know, fortunately, we’re kind of in the habit of doing that this year. It’s been what this year is all about,” Harrison Burton added.
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