Jeb Burton and Biagi-DenBeste Racing Richmond Race Report

Jeb Burton returned to the NASCAR XFINITY Series on Friday night at one of his home tracks, Richmond International Raceway. Burton partnered with Estes Express Lines to race the No. 98 Ford owned by Biagi-DenBeste Racing – a winning team this season in the XFINITY Series.

 

The team had a long day at the racetrack, complete with a two-hour practice session and qualifying in preparation for Friday night’s race. The team qualified in the 13th position, just narrowly missing out on advancing to the third round of qualifying.

 

Burton started Friday night’s race running in the Top-15, before his spotter reported that there was trash on the grill on Lap 11. Burton worked with his spotter and his crew chief to get behind another car and use the aero dynamics to remove the trash, and was successful on Lap 16. Unfortunately, it shifted Burton back a few positions, and he was competing for the 20th position. The team fell one lap down on Lap 47, but was the Lucky Dog. The caution flag came out on Lap 48, and Burton was able to get the lap back.

 

Fighting a No. 98 Ford Mustang that had no forward bite and lacked rear grip, Burton fell behind a lap to the leaders once again on Lap 88. The team made an attempt to better the handling conditions for Burton through a green flag pit stop on Lap 142, but it wasn’t enough to hold off the hard-charging leaders. Burton fell three laps down, and finished the race in the 19th position, three laps down.

 

“We really struggled all day trying to figure out how to put more rear grip and forward bite into our No. 98 Estes Express Lines Ford,” Burton said. “We were able to hang on to the lead lap for a while, but the handling just couldn’t give me the speed to stay on the lead lap. We made a change on the last pit stop that really helped and gave us the ability to pass more cars, but we ran out of laps. I’m really thankful that Estes Express Lines could support me and the No. 98 Ford at Biagi-DenBeste, and I can’t thank them enough for giving me the opportunity to run in my home state of Virginia.”

Biagi-DenBeste Racing PR