In his debut run with the Wood Brothers, Harrison Burton drove the No. 21 Mustang into the lead in the season-opening Daytona 500 only to be collected in a crash that sent him airborne and prematurely ended a promising start.
As Burton and the DEX Imaging team return to Daytona International Speedway for Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400, the goal is to pick up where they left off in February.
“Our first goal for the weekend is to run up front like we did the last time at Daytona, but this time keep all four tires on the ground,” said crew chief Brian Wilson. “The first trip to Daytona was a great start to the year for the No. 21 team.
“We qualified in the top 10, raced near the front in our Duel and led laps in the 500.
“The wreck in the 500 was unfortunate, but we showed that we can compete at superspeedway races.”
Saturday night’s race is the 26th and final event in the Cup Series regular season, the last chance for teams not already assured of a Playoff berth to win a race and join the 16 drivers who will begin the chase for the Cup Series championship.
Wilson said that despite the team’s struggles at times, the No. 21 DEX Imaging team isn’t conceding anything yet.
“As the regular season winds down we know that we’re still building and looking for more consistency in our program,” he said. “But this weekend presents a great opportunity to compete for win No. 100 for the Wood Brothers organization.
“We’ll look to work with our manufacturer teammates to keep Ford at the front on Saturday night.”
There will be no practice at Daytona this weekend. Qualifying for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 is set for Friday at 5:05 p.m., and the 160-lap, 400-mile race is scheduled to start just after 7 p.m. on Saturday with TV coverage on NBC.
WBR PR
Stage breaks are planned for Laps 35 and 95.
