Harrison Burton led the last two laps, but that was enough to win his second race of the season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, capturing the first of a two-race weekend doubleheader at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“So much fun, for me especially,” Burton said. “I gave him (Gragson) the lead on the outside early and I think he chose the inside because of that. I knew I couldn’t give it to him again.
“This is such a tight series and everyone is so, so competitive that you kind of have to claw and dig every chance you get. This was one of those times where he kind of got loose and got under him and it was a good race, that’s for sure.”
The 19-year-old Burton, son of NASCAR on NBC analyst Jeff Burton, has now won twice (also won at Fontana) this season and has earned seven top-5 finishes in the first nine races.
Burton overtook runner-up Austin Cindric and prior race leader Noah Gragson, who was seeking his third win of the season, but tailed off on the last lap to finish third. Anthony Alfredo finished fourth and NASCAR on NBC analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished fifth in his first race since last August’s Xfinity race at Darlington.
Burton becomes the third two-time winner of the season, joining Gragson and Chase Briscoe. The series returns for its second race of the weekend Sunday at Miami.
Click here for results, standings
STAGE 1 WINNER: Ryan Sieg
STAGE 2 WINNER: Noah Gragson
Who had a good race: Dale Earnhardt Jr., making his first start since late last August at Darlington, finished fifth.
Who had a bad race: Tommy Joe Martins had high hopes coming into the race, only to suffer a mechanical failure prior to the start of the race. Repairs were made and he finished 31st.
Notable: Chase Briscoe’s race started off disastrous: a piece of ballast fall off his car during the pace laps. After repairs, he rejoined the race six laps down, but was able to make up the laps and was up to sixth place by Lap 132, but hit the wall with 11 laps left and finished seventh. NASCAR announced late Saturday night that it has handed down four-race suspensions to Briscoe’s crew chief Richard Boswell, car chief Nick Hutchins and engineer DJ Vanderley, starting with Sunday’s Xfinity Series race at Miami. The trio will also miss upcoming races at Talladega, Pocono and Indianapolis. They are eligible to return at Kentucky Speedway on Thursday, July 9. The incident and resulting penalty is similar to the ballast that fell off Denny Hamlin’s car prior to the Coca-Cola 600 on May 24.
Next race: The Xfinity Series returns to Homestead-Miami Speedway Sunday (12 p.m. ET on FS1) for the second half of the weekend doubleheader.
