PLANO, Texas (March 2, 2020) – Nineteen-year-old Harrison Burton continued his strong start to his rookie season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series scoring his first victory at California’s Auto Club Speedway over the weekend.

NASCAR

The Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) Supras were dominant in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race. Burton started on the front row beside teammate Brandon Jones, who scored his first pole of the season. Early on, it looked like it might be Jones’ day as he led the first 73 laps (of 150) and won the first two stages. However, Burton drove to the front in the closing stage and was able to pull away from his JGR teammate, Riley Herbst, on the final restart to score his first win.

“So proud of our guys,” said Burton. “All we’ve heard is we can’t do it, we can’t do it, we’ll never do what last year’s 20 (Christopher Bell) did. We’re off to a good start. It’s awesome, it feels so good to win. There’s times when you go through a little bit of a drought and just doubt yourself. To get a win feels so good, especially after last year when we struggled a little bit. Really proud of our guys. The DEX Imaging Supra was fast and once we moved up to the top at the end, it was going to be really hard for him to pass us. Just trying to be smart and not put it in the wall leading.”

Although Herbst came up short to Burton, he still had an outstanding day – finishing a career-best second.

“This Monster Energy Supra was really fast and I’m really proud of Harrison (Burton),” said Herbst. “We’ve worked really hard this off-season. We’ve read everything and heard everything – that we’re not ready for this, that we can’t do this in this series. Keep on talking because we’re coming for more wins this year for sure.”

Burton – who has started his rookie season with three top-five finishes – took over the points lead with Toyota’s 499th NASCAR national series victory.

On Sunday, Kyle Busch nearly accomplished another milestone victory for the second straight year as he came one spot shy of Toyota’s 500th win.

“There at the end felt like the tires were worn out at the last bit of the race,” said Busch. “Just frustrating day for us with our Interstate Batteries Camry. Give it up to my guys and everybody at the shop, they’re certainly working hard. I just feel like we’re kind of missing it a little bit. Those things kind of add up and drag you down a little bit. Overall, great day I guess coming home with second and getting good points out of here.”

Busch was joined in the top 10 by his JGR teammates Denny Hamlin (sixth) and Erik Jones (10th).

What’s Next

NASCAR racing action finishes the West Coast swing with a stop at Phoenix Raceway. The ARCA Menards Series leads off the weekend on Friday, March 6 at 7 p.m. EST on FS1. The Xfinity Series runs on Saturday, March 7 at 4 p.m. EST on FS1 while the Cup Series race will be broadcast on FOX on Sunday, March 8 beginning at 3:30 p.m. EDT.