Story By: JORDAN WOOD / WOOD BROTHERS RACING – HAMPTON, GA – Twice in the closing laps of Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Harrison Burton and the No. 21 DEX Imaging Mustang Dark Horse were poised for a good finish, but a last-lap crash left him with a 31st-place finish.
Despite the disappointing finish, he remains 14th in the Playoff standings but is now 16 points behind the 12th-place cutline for elimination after the third race of the Playoffs.
Burton started Sunday’s race, the opener of the Round of 16 of the 2024 Playoffs, from 14th place.
His qualifying time from Saturday gave him good track position and he held onto it throughout the first Stage, racing as high as ninth place before ending that 60-lap run in 11th place.
The second Stage saw Burton run in the top 15 for the majority of the 100-lap run before ending the Stage in 22nd place.
In the third and final segment of the race he worked his way forward and ran in the top 15 for the majority of the laps. He made his final pit stop at Lap 207 of the scheduled 260, putting him in good shape fuel- and tire-wise for the remainder of the race.
Burton was running 15th a little over a lap shy of the checkered flag when contact between him, Noah Gragson and others brought out the caution flag and sent the race into Overtime.
On the race-ending, three-lap shootout, Burton took the green flag in 14th place and fell back a couple of spots before being swept up in a multi-car crash coming to the finish line.
His DEX Imaging Mustang was too damaged to make it across the line and he was scored in 31st place, one lap down.
Still, he maintained his place in the standings with two races – at Watkins Glen next week and Bristol the following week – remaining in the Round of 16. After Bristol, the bottom four drivers in the Playoff standings will be eliminated from championship contention.