The lame duck did it.
Harrison Burton came out on top at the end of a chaotic Coke Zero Sugar 400 to get the 100th win for the legendary Wood Brothers Racing just weeks after being told he won’t be returning to the team in 2025.
It was the first win of his three-year NASCAR Cup Series career.
“I cried the whole victory lap,” Burton said on NBC after the race.
“Obviously, I got fired from this job and I wanted to do everything for the Wood Brothers that I could. They gave me an amazing opportunity in life and to get them 100 on my way out is amazing.”
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The race went into overtime when Austin Cindric spun Josh Berry, who is replacing Burton at Wood Brothers Racing next season, following a restart with three to go.
Berry flipped onto his roof despite the addition of a new wind deflector on the right side of the rear window that was added to the cars this week to prevent that from happening after Corey LaJoie flipped in the last race at Michigan in a similar situation.
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Kyle Busch and Burton started overtime on the front row and Busch led the first lap, but Burton got a big push and was able to block Busch, who bumped him but couldn’t get by before the finish line.
Several big wrecks knocked many of top teams out of the race, including Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Kyle Larson.
The win put Burton into the playoffs with one regular season race to go. Busch finished second and sits in 19th place in the playoff standings, 106 points below the cutline and in need of a win at Darlington next week. The also winless Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace are in 17th and 18th, 21 points and 27 points out of a playoff spot, respectively.
Wood Brothers Racing was founded in 1950 and is the oldest team in NASCAR. Its last win came at Pocono in 2017 with Ryan Blaney behind the wheel.