In hopes of winning his way into the Round of 8, Jeb Burton stayed out during a late caution pit cycle among the leaders.
When the green flag waved with less than 10 laps to go, Burton had to fight off a hard charging pack filled with fresh tires against his lonesome Chevrolet Camaro.
Instead, he missed fighting against the grip in Turn 1 and crashed into the outside wall, collecting Justin Allgaier and Blaine Perkins.
“I hate it,” Burton shared after the race with a 34th place result. “We tore up our care there. That was unacceptable on my part. It wasn’t like we were going to win the race right there, even though everything is on the line. I just said it off in there. I wanted to stay side by side with (Allgaier) and just totally blew the corner.
“We’ve seen a lot of people do that right there, and you probably will see it tomorrow.”
Burton entered the Drive for the Cure 250 being 19 points below the cutoff. After a 19th place qualifying effort, it made the pursuit of stage points difficult for the No. 27 Jordan Anderson Racing team. After earning just two points in the first stage and none in the second stage, the only way he could advance out of the Round of 12 was by winning at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course.
While his season ends, it’s still a positive improvement from last year, seeing a higher average finish, average start and a win compared to last year’s efforts. With five top 10s this year, it’s five more than last year.
“I think we’ve learned a lot,” he continued, in describing his second Playoff appearance. “We came a long way as a group. It was definitely a tough, frustrating week last week at Texas (Motor Speedway). We had a different pit crew today. I thought they did a great job. We should have finished inside the top 15.
“We’ve ran really good, but the last three weeks have been tough. We just got to get back to doing what we were doing and focus on us.”
The NASCAR Xfinity Series has four races remaining in its 2023 campaign. The Playoffs now down to eight drivers will start the next round next Saturday afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.