Harrison Burton, Riley Herbst finish 1-2 at Fontana

Harrison Burton is now a winner within the national levels of NASCAR.

Burton, 19, led 40 laps Saturday (Feb. 29) in the Production Alliance Group 300 at Auto Club Speedway to claim his first career victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Burton is the 163rd different winner in the Xfinity Series.

“We’re off to a good start,” Burton said. “It’s awesome, it feels so good to win. There’s times when you go through a little bit of a drought and just doubt  yourself.

“To get a win feels so good, especially after last year when we struggled a little bit. Really proud of our guys.”

Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Riley Herbst picked up his career-best finish in the series with his runner-up finish at the 2.5-mile speedway.

“I’m really, really proud of Harrison (Burton),” Herbst said. “We’ve worked really hard this off-season. We’ve read everything and heard everything – that we’re not ready for this, that we can’t do this in this series.

“Keep on talking because we’re coming for more wins this year for sure.”

Rounding out the top-5 finishers were Austin Cindric, Ryan Sieg and Justin Haley.

In his Xfinity Series debut, Anthony Alfredo finished sixth.

FACTOIDS
The last race ran on the date Feb. 29 was in 1992. On that day, Harrison’s uncle Ward Burton won the Goodwrench 200 at North Carolina Motor Speedway.

The next race for the Xfinity Series will be at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, March 7.

SOURCES
Racing-Reference.info
Toyota Racing