Burton Claims First Xfinity Series Win at Auto Club Speedway

After an extremely eventful race, it was ultimately the No. 20 Dex Imaging Toyota Supra of Harrison Burton that brought home the checkered flag. Though the Joe Gibbs racing driver had never completed a race at Auto Club Speedway, he was able to lead 40 laps and ultimately win the Production Alliance Group 300. Impressively, this was only the rookie’s third start as a full-time Xfinity Series driver, and now he can add a win to his resume. Of this win, Harrison Burton proclaimed to his crew chief Ben Beshore, “Let’s go boys! I knew we could do it! Proud of you guys! Let’s do this all year!”

Only 0.455 seconds behind Burton was his teammate Riley Herbst in the No. 18, who had also never raced at the track prior to today. Following behind Herbst was the rest of the top five, consisting of the No. 22 of Austin Cindric, the No. 39 of Ryan Sieg, and the No. 11 of Justin Haley.

Though Brandon Jones did not find himself finishing in this top five, he claimed both stage one and stage two. After starting on the pole, Jones was dominant in collecting these stage wins, leading all 35 laps in each stage. However, his day took a drastic turn when he had to pit on lap 103 due to a tire rub.

As far as on-track episodes go, there were six cautions due to on-track incidents. The first of these occurred on lap 81, where Justin Haley had a flat tire due to previous contact with the No. 21 of Anthony Alfredo. Next, a caution on lap 86 was brought out due to an incident involving Brandon Brown, Michael Annett, and Joe Graf Jr. The third caution was a spin for the No. 5 of Matt Mills. Lap 96 involved more contact; this time, the No. 10 of Ross Chastain bumped into the back of the No. 9 of Noah Gragson. The fifth of these cautions was simply for debris from a tire carcass. The last of these cautions was found on lap 126 with the second single car spin of the race; this time it was the No. 98 of Chase Briscoe, who was running second at the time of his spin. 

The Xfinity series will be back in action again on March 7 at Phoenix Raceway. Coverage will be found on FS1 with the race beginning at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Kaylee Hiner