NASCAR: Harrison Burton’s own dad said there’s ‘no way’ he wins

Harrison Burton even proved his father Jeff wrong by rallying to win Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

In the closing laps of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series round of 8 playoff race at Texas Motor Speedway, JR Motorsports’ Noah Gragson had opened up a lead of over one second and was on his way to securing a spot in the Championship 4 for the first time in his career.

But it was clear that among the top three drivers, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Harrison Burton was the quickest behind the wheel of his #20 Toyota in third place. The #21 Chevrolet of Richard Childress Racing’s Anthony Alfredo was simply holding him up in second.

With just over two laps remaining around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval in Fort Worth, Texas, Burton, who had spun out earlier in the race, finally got around Alfredo for second place.

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But it appeared to be too late to catch up to the #9 Chevrolet of Gragson, much less get around it for the race win.

Gragson took the white flag still more than a half-second ahead of Burton, a seemingly insurmountable gap over the course of a single 1.5-mile circuit. At least, that’s what Harrison’s father Jeff thought.

Jeff Burton, a former driver himself — and a former Texas Motor Speedway race winner — serves as a color commentator for NBC, a role in which he does quite a respectable job not illustrating the indisputable fact that he would like to see his son in victory lane every race.

But even he made clear that his son had “no way” to get past Gragson, agreeing with colleague Steve Letarte that it was “too little, too late.”

“Unless something happens, there’s just no way you can get there, I don’t think,” said Jeff.

He did leave the door open, however, noting that his son was “running [Gragson] down, down the back straightaway, big time.”

But in the final two turns and with lap traffic in play, he reiterated that his son wasn’t going to win the race.

“Slow car on the bottom, just nowhere for Harrison to go right there,” he added.

That’s when Harrison would’ve said, “Let me show you the way, Dad.”

Of course, it was Letarte and Rick Allen who did all the talking after Burton pulled off this amazing pass and claimed the victory a few seconds later, his third of the season and the third of his career.

Here’s why.

Burton was unfortunately eliminated following the round of 12 of the playoffs, so his victory does not lock him into the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway to battle for the title.

As for Gragson, instead of being locked into that winner-take-all round on Saturday, November 7, he is set to enter the round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, October 31 a total of 24 points below the Championship 4 cut line.