By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Harrison Burton was one truck away from capturing his first Gander Outdoors Truck Series victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Unfortunately for Burton, that one truck was Kyle Busch, his team owner and the dominator of the Ultimate Tailgating 200 on Saturday night. And even worse, Burton was lined up on the outside lane for the race’s final restart with five laps to go.
Following a red flag due to precipitation, Burton restarted second alongside Busch. And after spinning the rear tires of his No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota, he fell to finish eighth.
“The outside is really bad here,” Burton said. “Especially when you have Kyle Busch to your inside. I got an alright launch at first and then getting from third to fourth [gears] was really hard, struggling with spinning the rear tires. I’m bummed out.”
Contending with Busch up front throughout the night, Burton was disappointed to not cap it off where he restarted.
“I raced my butt off all night and it just didn’t go our way,” he said. “I want to win one of these really damn bad (laughs). That kind of hurts.”
Following a DNF in the opening round at Daytona, Burton was happy to see his No. 18 team gel in the season’s first 1.5-mile track.
“As a team, we built some momentum,” he said. “The middle of the race we were really strong, running the top, passing trucks. My pit crew was good. So, we have a lot of things to build off going into Vegas. That makes our job a little less stressful.
“We just have to get in the right lane on the next one.”