‘We’re working hard to make it happen,’ Cup Series rookie Harrison Burton is all ready to make a comeback following his fall to obscurity after early-season heroics

Harrison Burton at the beginning of 2022 seemed like he had everything on his hand to rival Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric for the Rookie of the Year award but after six rounds of Cup Series racing the rookie is in no way near the once promised land.

Harrison Burton impressed the NASCAR community with his early-season runs at L.A. Coliseum, where he finished P12, and Daytona 500, where he once led the race and also finished P3 in the Daytona Duel race in his No. 21 Ford Mustang. But following this early season wonders was a run to obscurity for the young lad as two DNFs and a mere two top 20 finishes send him down to 30 in the championship table.

Harrison Burton showed he can make a comeback in COTA last weekend where he scored some stage points and finished at P17 at the checkered flag. Now he has come forth expressing his confidence that he will bounce back to the top in the cup series after reflecting on his early debut season.

Find out what Harrison Burton had to say about his season so far

Harrison Burton said that the rookie season is a building process for him and the team and everyone around him at Wood Brothers racing knew it is. He went on to say though they failed to emulate the LA and Daytona heroics in further races the last week in COTA was a good step in the right direction. The former Xfinity front runners added that he now understands that the Top 5 in Cup Series needs more hard work than it needs for Xfinity.

“It’s a building process and I think everyone at the Wood Brothers and myself understands that this is going to be a building process. Obviously, the good start we had at L.A. and Daytona, we wanted to continue that, and that hasn’t quite happened, so we’re working hard to make it happen, and I think we’ve got a great racetrack for us coming up at Richmond,” Harrison Burton said.

“I think every rookie has some days like that, where you feel like you’re driving hard, and what would be enough to be top five in Xfinity is not top five in Cup, that’s for sure. I think this weekend (at COTA) was similar to that for me just with the stage points,” Harrison Burton added.  

“I feel like I need to be a little more aggressive,” Harrison Burton on how to improve his Cup Series performance

Harrison Burton acknowledged that it’s hard to get the track position back for some young rookie like him if you lost it once as the computers are smarter and skill full than he thought they might be. So, the rookie suggests that he should be working on his aggressive offenses than defense and try to get the fight to them.

“I feel like I need to be a little more aggressive understanding how important track position is,” Burton said. “As soon as the race starts, it’s time to go. It’s easy to say, ‘I have 500 miles to go figure it out.’ Well, if you lose a couple of spots, those guys that pass you are really smart, they’re really good, and they’re hard to pass back, so you end up spending more time trying to pass them than you would trying to move forward,” Harrison Burton said.

“That’s been my focus — to get a little more aggressive over time and get a little bit more on the offensive instead of defensive against these guys. Just go take the fight to them and see what we’ve got,” Harrison Burton added.

Also read: ‘I’ve never had more confidence,’ Aric Almirola reveals he is more than ready for a first win of 2022 in Richmond

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