Harrison Burton and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team left Talladega Superspeedway with a 34th-place finish after being swept up in a multi-car crash on Lap 90 of Sunday’s GEICO 500.
Burton started 25th and ran inside the top 20 for most of the first half of the race.
He lined up 20th for a restart following a spin by B.J. McLeod, but as the cars got up to speed, Joey Logano was knocked into the wall. That triggered a nine-car crash that saw the No. 21 Mustang sustain race-ending damage to its front end.
“Unfortunately we were just kind of a victim there,” Burton told reporters after exiting his damaged Mustang. “I tried to be smart all race and bailed out of a pack for like the first time in my superspeedway career but still found a way to crash.
“That is frustrating because I always want to try to learn to get better, but I don’t know what I could have done differently there.”
Burton said the racing at Talladega was a good bit different than at Daytona, Talladega’s sister track, back in February.
“The top wasn’t quite as fast as it was at Daytona,” he said. “I felt like when I got out in front at Daytona I wanted to maintain the outside.
“Here it was like the bottom was chugging along pretty good. It was hard to get runs.
“The bottom had about 10-15 cars lined up and it was hard to leapfrog all those guys.”
Burton and his Wood Brothers team will try to bounce back next weekend at Dover International Speedway.
WBR PR
