AUSTIN, Texas — Harrison Burton's first season with Sam Hunt Racing started with back-to-back crashes that buried him in the standings.
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This certainly is not how the four-time O'Reilly Auto Parts Series winner expected these races to go, but he now gets to embrace the pressure created by NASCAR ditching win-and-in for The Chase.
"Obviously, it sucks that we've got off to a bad start to our year, and now we have to dig out of that hole," Burton told FanBuzz at Circuit of the Americas.
"But that's what's really neat about it, is for me as a driver, I feel more pressure week three than I have in years, right, showing up to the racetrack. We've had bad luck — like we talked about — the last two weeks, and now it's like, okay, we better get on top of it. We're gonna find ourselves in a pretty big debt on the points side."
Burton, who returned to the Toyota Racing camp this season, sits 34th in points. He scored eight points in the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway after being collected in a crash and finishing 29th. He then scored two points at EchoPark Speedway after being collected in a crash in the opening laps.
"The last two weeks, I felt like we've brought fast race cars," Burton said. "Qualified well at Atlanta, and just was kind of right in the mix when some mistakes happened.
"So I don't know what to do different other than just keep going. And I've been on both sides of it. I've been really fortunate at superspeedway-style races, and I've been really unfortunate, and it tends to even itself out."
Burton sits 31 points behind Brandon Jones, who holds the final spot above the early cutline. Erasing this deficit will not be easy as the series now heads to Circuit of the Americas, Phoenix Raceway, and Las Vegas Raceway.
The young driver has the benefit of fast cars put out by Sam Hunt Racing. He also has past success at the upcoming track styles on the schedule. This includes top-five finishes at such road courses as Road America and Watkins Glen.
Now, he just needs to go out and deliver a season-best performance as he tries to dig out of this points hole.
"I like that showing up to COTA, I feel anxious and nervous like it's a playoff race," Burton said. "I think that kind of feeling is fun, and it's what the drivers seem to want, it's what the fans seem to want. So let's do it."
