Harrison Burton and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team are headed to one of the more unique tracks on the Cup Series circuit – the 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in Madison, Ill., which is hosting Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300.
The track is egg-shaped like Darlington, and also like Darlington, has two different corners – with Turns One and Two akin to New Hampshire Speedway and Turns Three and Four like Phoenix Raceway.
Jeremy Bullins, crew chief of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang Dark Horse is a fan of the track’s layout.
“I still call it Gateway, but WWT Raceway is such a great track,” he said, referring to the track’s former name of Gateway International Raceway. “It races like a really big short track, and with the two ends being different it makes it challenging to get your car perfect.”
Like any other track on the circuit, qualifying at WWT is a challenge but Bullins doesn’t expect to be at as much of a disadvantage as the team has been at other tracks in recent weeks.
“We go out early in qualifying again, but qualifying is early in the morning so I don’t think that will be a huge penalty like some weeks,” he said. “Hopefully we can get a good starting spot as this week is a bit of a short race and you won’t have many pit stops.
“It’s much easier to be up front early and try to stay there than to try to come from the back. If you get a penalty of any kind it makes it hard to recover.”
Practice for the Enjoy Illinois 300 is set for Saturday at 8:30 a.m. Central Time (9:30 Eastern) to be followed by qualifying at 9:15 (10:15 Eastern).
Sunday’s 240-lap race is set to get the green flag just after 2:30 (3:30 Eastern) with Stage breaks at Laps 45 and 140.
FOX Sports 1 will carry the TV coverage all weekend.
WBR PR
