Old School New Name: Harrison Burton Wins K&N East Busch North Throwback At Thompson Speedway

Harrison Burton celebrates victory in the K&N Pro Series East Busch North Throwback 100 Saturday at Thompson Speedway (Photo: Adam Glanzman/Getty Images for NASCAR)

The history of racing at Thompson Speedway includes some of the most famous names of NASCAR lore.

NASCAR Hall of Famers David Pearson and Bobby Isaac had NASCAR Monster Energy victories at the track in 1969 and 1970 respectively. Fellow NASCAR Hall of Famer and Modified great Richie Evans has a host of wins at the facility.

Others names reminiscent of NASCAR greatness who have arrived in victory lane at the track include Ken Bouchard, Ron Bouchard, Steve Park, Jimmy Spencer, Mike Stefanik and Ted Christopher.

The list of who’s who of NASCAR success having some of that success at Thompson goes on and on.

Saturday another historic NASCAR name was added to the winner’s role at Thompson

Jeff Burton and Ward Burton are two brothers who had a plethora of victories at NASCAR’s highest levels in recent decades.

But Saturday it was Jeff Burton’s son Harrison putting the Burton name on the victory list at Thompson Speedway.

Harrison Burton came out on top of a late race battle for the lead with Todd Gilliland and won the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Busch North Throwback 100 Saturday at Thompson.

“It’s awesome,” Harrison Burton said. “The Burton’s, they’re kind of like a team. We all root for each other even if we’re racing each other. It’s cool that we’re kind of branching out a little bit and trying some new race tracks and I’m getting the opportunity to drive at race tracks like this and really have good race cars while I do it. … It’s cool to put the Burton name up somewhere else.”

It was the first K&N Pro Series East event at Thompson since 2009.

Gilliland was second and Ronnie Bassett Jr. third. Four-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Doug Coby of Milford was fourth in his series debut. Ryan Preece of Berlin, making his fourth career start in the series, was sixth.

Burton started third and spent much of the race stalking Gilliland in the lead.

On lap 73 Burton got under Gilliland off of turn two. The two then went side-by-side for lap 74 and 75, with Burton taking the lead off of turn four on lap 75. On lap 77 Burton cleared Gilliland off of turn four and had clear sailing the rest of the way.

“I was pretty focused so I didn’t really think about having fun, but it was fun looking back at it,” Harrison Burton said of the battle for the lead. “We kind of would try to make a run in the middle and it wouldn’t work and I’d fall back. I had to kind of slowly chip away and it finally fell right to where I kind of just drove it in and it stuck pretty well and it got to his door. From there it was just kind of side-by-side for a few laps and that was pretty fun and pretty intense. I don’t think I breathed a whole through it. Once we got clear it was just trying to be smooth.”

Said Gilliland: “That was pretty fun. Our car fired off the race pretty fast and then I think I just ran too hard and got the rear tires too hot. From there we were just slipping and sliding. We knew once [Burton] got by us it was going to be really hard to pass. … It think it was on me just burning up the rear tires too much.”

Comments

  1. Ironic on Busch North throw back night, Harrison Burton wins, his dad is calling the Cup race on TV which was won by a Busch North Alumni!

  2. Great event, I was glad to hear several of the past Busch North drivers returned to support the series and the track.

    On another note, if there would have been a late race caution, Coby may well have won this race. Looks like Joe Gibbs called the wrong modified driver to me folks!

  3. The old Busch North cars raced well throughout the race!!! And Doug Coby drove thru traffic to finish fourth in his first start in a K&N car. Awesome job Coby!!!

  4. Facts Matter says

    Wheres GoodFellow with his nasty Coby comments?

  5. Good job Doug
    Who cares about goodfella
    Low iq 4 sure
    That goodfella is a fake mobster who knows nothing about racing

  6. darealgoodfella says

    Colby came in 4th place?!?!? In an one-off extinct nostalgia series? WOW!!!! Somebody call all the Monster Energy Drink team owners immediately. Colby is ready for multi-million dollar contracts, TV commercials, product endorsements, special appearances, and a 20 year driver contract. He should have a ride in Monster, xfinity and trucks. And he should drive all those haulers. At least. Hurry before someone signs him. The F1 series is calling already, they don’t shave either.

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