Burton Drives Backup to SLM Victory Lane at New Smyrna

A few early cautions marred the start of Tuesday’s return to racing at New Smyrna Speedway, but Harrison Burton was able to dominate the 50-lap Super Late Model World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing feature.

After rain showers washed out Monday night’s action, Super Late Model teams returned for the first time since Saturday night.  Some teams, like Burton’s, needed time to prep backup cars following crashes.

“It’s a long week, especially when you wreck a race car,” Burton said.  “Morale is kind of down and I can’t think of a better way to get back up. The car was obviously amazing, I think we had the best car out there tonight. ”

A string of early cautions put World Series contenders into panic mode, but the field collected itself as the race progressed under green flag conditions.  As the race closed in on the final laps, Ty Majeski began chasing down Burton but would not be able to catch him before the checkered flag waved.

“Just really tight through the center off, just wasn’t turning the way I needed it to,” Majeski told Speed51.com powered by JEGS.  “Harrison’s car was turning a little better than mine and that was the difference.”

Burton’s team finally felt relief after several days of preparing a backup car.

“The guy’s worked tremendously hard to get the car ready for tonight,” stated Burton.  “We wrecked our car the last race.  This is our backup car.  Our backup car was just as fast, if not faster, than our primary.  Just quality, quality, quality, and quantity.”

Super Late Model teams will now focus on Wednesday night’s 35-lap dash. Majeski says there are more adjustments to be made.

“We’re just going to have to keep up with the racetrack as the week goes on.  A little more rubber gets laid down, gets harder to turn the center here so we just need to keep up a little bit.  I’m optimistic for tomorrow.”

After picking up a pair of World Series wins one year ago, Burton has his eyes set on scoring win number two of the week, but knows it will be a difficult task.

“I think we’ve got to be ever-evolving,” he said.  “The guys behind me are going to work hard tomorrow to make sure they can beat me.  So we’ve got to make sure that we work just as hard, if not harder, to stay ahead of them.”

-By Patrick Hahe, Speed51.com IN, MI, OH State Editor – Twitter: @PatrickHahe_S51