Saturday, June 08, 2013

Family Tradition: Jeb Burton Wins In Texas

The apple does not appear to have fallen far from the Burton family tree.

Rookie Jeb Burton, son of 2002 Daytona 50 champion Ward Burton, won his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway in only his 12th career start, fending off a furious challenge from Ty Dillon to claim the checkered flag in the WinStar World Casino 400.

Proud papa Ward – a nine-time NASCAR National Series winner – called his son’s victory, "the most special moment in motorsports I’ve ever experienced. He doesn’t have any experience, he’s just driving off pure, raw talent. I can’t tell you how proud I am of him."
Texas has been kind to the Burtons before. Jeb Burton’s uncle Jeff won the inaugural Sprint Cup Series race there back in 1997.

"We worked really hard to get here," said Jeb Burton, who jumped to second in the Truck Series championship standings, just 23 behind leader Matt Crafton, who finished fourth. "I knew I could do it if I had the team, equipment and crew chief. It means a lot."

He took the lead on the final restart with 24 laps remaining and beat Dillon – who had dominated much of the event -- to the checkered flag by .19 seconds. German Quiroga finished third, followed by Crafton and Brendan Gaughan.  Darrell Wallace, Jr., Johnny Sauter, Ryan Blaney, defending series champion James Buescher and Miguel Paludo completed the Top-10.
"It’s big," said Burton of his win. "We needed to get one, and I think we can start clicking them off. Every week it’s fun to come to the racetrack."

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