NCS: Ford Dominates Coke Zero Sugar 400 catapulting Wood Brothers to 100th Series Victory with Harrison Burton - Speedway Digest

Ford dominance, that’s how it started with not only an all Ford front row but seven of the top-10 cars with a blue oval on the hood following qualifying yesterday.

With that, Ford would dominate the first stage of the night with every lead change except for one when William Byron would break through briefly with help from Larson to lead just a single lap in the stage.

Stage one would come to a close with no surprise of the Ford of Josh Berry picking up the opening stage win of the night after leading five times for seven laps over Logano, Buescher, Cindric and Blaney rounding out the top-five.

Under the caution Suarez would make a return trip back to pit road as the car would engulf itself in flames. Suarez would exit the car on pit road ending his night early.

“The No. 11 was leaving his pit stall right behind me, and because he was waiting for me to leave, his exhaust fired up the little fuel I dropped. Because I was still parked there, that went up the back of my car where the fuel cell is and it just grabbed it. It was a very unfortunate situation. I don’t know what we could have done differently.” Said Suarez

“The other crazy thing is that I was able to feel the heat, but because I don’t run a rearview mirror and only run the rearview camera, I couldn’t see it. The rearview camera is connected to the rear bumper, so I could see the smoke, but I couldn’t see the fire. I could feel the heat, but I couldn’t see how big it was.” Continued Suarez

Just as things started to settle down with single file racing, Gragson would get turned into Chastain down the back collecting 15 cars including Hamlin, Elliott, Byron and more. Hamlin would exit his car with Elliott driving back to the garage, ending their night.

“Everyone was saving gas, so I didn’t really think anyone was being too aggressive, but the first thing I saw was the 7 (Corey LaJoie) got turned in front of me.” Said Hamlin

Preece would attempt to fix his car, but time would expire on the clock sending the No. 41 to the garage also.

Just as the race would pass halfway Shane Van Gisbergen motor would expire dropping fluid down the backstretch with Erik Jones also running over debris cutting a tire to bring out the third caution of the night.

Stage two’s final six laps would go green to the end with Larson, Logano and Keselowski all swapping the lead back and forth. Logano would end up capturing the second stage win over Blaney, Keselowski, Larson and Gilliland.

After an orderly start to the final stage of the night and pit stops looming Larson would contact Nemechek sending the No. 42 machine spinning down the back. Nemechek just prior to the spin had been challenging Justin Haley for the race lead.

With 10 to go displayed in the air and three wide racing up front for the lead, McDowell would clear Larson for the lead heading into turn one. As McDowell would be racing the high side line would get hit from behind by Cindric cutting the No. 38 machine down into the path of Logano, Larson and others collecting a total of 14 cars.

On the restart Cindric would gain the advantage coming to the white flag when Cindric would get hit from behind by Busch turning the car into the path of Berry bringing out the seventh caution of the night setting up a NASCAR overtime.

Berry’s car would go airborne, flipping and spinning on its roof before coming to rest. Following a few tense moments Berry’s car would be flipped back on its wheels and Berry would exit the car under his own power.

On the final restart Busch and Burton raced down the backstretch before backing up to the No. 62 of Retzlaff to get a push out in front of Busch.

With the checkered flag in sight Burton blocked Busch going slightly below the racing lines before crossing the finish line. Moments later NASCAR would announce the race finish was under review before finally confirming Harrison Burton as the winner.

“I cried the whole victory lap. Obviously got fired from this job. I wanted to do everything for the Wood Brothers that I could. They’ve given me an amazing opportunity in life. To get them 100 on my way out is amazing. We’re in the Playoffs now. Let’s go to Darlington and see what happens.” Said Burton

“It’s been the hardest three years of my life, obviously the hardest three years for some of these guys’ lives. To win the way we just did, beat the best in the business, Kyle Busch, across the line, it’s pretty fantastic.” Continued Burton

Burton’s win captures The Wood Brothers 100^th NASCAR Cup Series victory over Kyle Busch by 0.047 followed by Bell, Ware, and Gibbs.

The NASCAR Cup Series moves onto the track Too Tough To Tame for the regular season ending Southern 500 Crown Jewel next Sunday, Sept 1 at 6:00 p.m. ET on USA Network.