Story By: JORDAN WOOD / WOOD BROTHERS RACING – STUART, VA – After opening the 2024 season on two drafting-style tracks, Harrison Burton and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team are headed to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a traditional intermediate-length track.
Crew chief Jeremy Bullins said he’s looking forward to Sunday’s Pennzoil 400, particularly in light of the team’s performance in a difficult drafting race this past Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In that race, Burton and the team managed to escape several on-track incidents and run in the top 10 for much of the event, then rally from a late incident to finish 11th.
That was an important turn-around after Burton was eliminated from the season-opening Daytona 500 in a Lap 6 multi-car melee.
“We finally had some luck on our side last week, avoiding major damage in the accidents we were involved in,” Bullins said. “It was definitely nice to have some luck on our side headed to Las Vegas, but our plan is to have the speed in our Mustang Dark Horse to go have a good race.”
The fact that the Pennzoil 400 is the first of many races on intermediate-length (around 1.5 miles in length) is not lost on Bullins.
“Being the first race of the year that’s not a speedway race will be a good test of our cars,” he said. “We also can see where the field stacks up and what we need to work on.”
Bullins believes he and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team will unload a fast Ford at Las Vegas.
“I feel like this team has put a lot of work in to be prepared, and we’re excited to see where we stack up,” he said.
Practice for the Pennzoil 400 is set for Saturday at 11:05 local time (2:05 Eastern Time) to be followed by qualifying at 11:50 (2:50 Eastern). FOX Sports 1 will carry the TV broadcast.
Sunday’s 400-mile, 267-lap race is scheduled to get the green flag just after 12:30 p.m. (3:30 Eastern) with TV coverage on FOX.
Stage breaks are planned for Laps 80 and 165.