NASCAR CUP SERIES: COKE ZERO SUGAR 400

August 24, 2024

Jeremy Bullins

Harrison Burton

Eddie Wood

Len Wood

Jon Wood

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: Good evening, good morning, everyone. We are currently joined by Harrison Burton, crew chief Jeremy Bullins, members of the Wood Brothers leadership, Len Wood, Eddie Wood and Jon Wood.

Harrison, first win, hundredth win for the organization, how are you feeling right now?

HARRISON BURTON: Yeah, I've struggled in all the interviews I've done. I'm sorry we're so late. I've done like a million interviews. I've struggled to put it into words.

To me, just the circumstances, obviously the way the last three years have gone, has not been the way I wanted to represent myself, the way I wanted to represent this team.

Then to have the kind of walls closing in on there's a different end to my time to get to drive this historic car, then to find a way to win while those walls are kind of closing in, to me is really, really special.

It almost makes the last three years worth it. But I'd much rather have won before now (smiling). It's just been so hard. That's the way it should be. The Cup Series is really, really hard. But to get the Wood Brothers 100th win, to get my very first Cup win, it's really, really hard to put in words.

I cried my whole cool-down lap. I have never cried after a race win in my life. Never even thought about crying after a race win. This one means a lot.

THE MODERATOR: Jeremy, talk us through tonight's race, how you got to this win.

JEREMY BULLINS: Yeah, I mean, I think you look at Speedway racing in general, there's always a little bit of a luck factor. You have to miss the wrecks. We've been on the bad end of that a lot. The odds are in your favor when you're at that point.

Tonight Harrison and Jason Jarrett did a great job of talking their way through the wrecks and missing everything. Even the last one that we missed, we had the discussion on the radio of, Did you flat spot the tires? I don't think I did, but I might have. We're in a spot where the only thing that mattered was winning.

We took the chance of staying out, taking that gamble. I'm almost speechless sitting here thinking that I'm sitting at a table with Eddie Wood, Jon Wood, Len Wood and Bailey Wood and Harrison with the hundredth win. Everything past that doesn't matter right now.

THE MODERATOR: Eddie, Jon or Len, can you tell us what this win means to your organization?

JON WOOD: I think Len would say a lot of money.

LEN WOOD: I would say that's our eighth decade of winning NASCAR races. I think that's what I'm most proud of.

EDDIE WOOD: It's beyond words, likes Harrison said. These races are so hard to win. It doesn't matter where they are, whether it's short tracks, road courses, speedways, whatever it is, they're hard to win.

I don't really have the words. I just want to thank everybody that supported us. Harrison, he's done such a great job tonight. I mean, missing those wrecks. It just seemed like they'd run a little while, then have another crash. He was so close. Just a matter of I'm not even going to say an inch, that one wreck, the early one. Seemed like about a quarter of an inch.

It just means so much to our team to finally get the other win. I'm looking forward to putting -- we've got a wall in front of our museum that's got 21 winners, 21 different drivers that's won races in our cars. I get to put him up next week.

JON WOOD: I'll say the irony, we sat in these seats, I don't remember, maybe 2016, when we didn't get a charter, and we were talking about it. It was the lowest point of lows. We had to do it. We had to come here, face the music, and say, I think we'll be okay. And we are.

You're going to make me cry (smiling). And I don't cry.

That's the part that's just so surreal in this. Sitting in the same seat and thinking where we were and where we are now. You go from the lowest of lows to just on top of it. I don't know what else to say.

EDDIE WOOD: Like Jon said, the people that supported us for years, Ford Motor Company, there's so many things in you guys' life, everybody's life, one phone call, one place you happen to be at a certain time, timing is everything, they say, but there was a phone call from Edsel Ford back in 2008. We were really struggling. He said, I'm going to have a gentleman call you tomorrow that's going to help you. That man's name was Jim Farley, who is now the CEO of Ford Motor Company. That's how far back things go.

Our family raced Ford Motor Company products since the beginning, 1950. I think that's one of the most things I'm really, really proud of. I'm proud of this young man right here.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations to all of you. We'll open it up for questions.

Q. Eddie, what do you see from Harrison behind the scenes that the general public is oblivious to, the work and effort that he puts in?

EDDIE WOOD: Yeah, I mean, I know all you know Harrison. Harrison is a type kid, when you see him, you want to hug him. He's just a good kid. He's like the rest of us. He's been beat up lately. For things to turn around like this, he did a great job tonight. I mean, that last restart, yeah, run Kyle Busch.

JEREMY BULLINS: He earned this one.

EDDIE WOOD: That's a day's work right there because he's a two-time champion. I said something a while ago, I was talking to Jeff, winning this race affects so many people in a good way. I mean, it just helps everything in every direction. I'm just honored to be in this room with you guys.

JON WOOD: You can't help but pull for him. I think that's the thing about Harrison. A lot of our fan base, a lot of fan base just doesn't see.

When you're running bad, you don't get a lot of coverage, you don't get the chance to have that exposure and opportunity to show people who you are. This is a great time to do that. You see the real Harrison sitting here. We're so stoked to be with him.

Again, you just can't help but want the best for him. He's not like most of 'em.

JEREMY BULLINS: I want to chime in here. I probably worked with him most than anybody up here the last how many races. We've not performed like we want to. Neither one of us, right? Our expectations are much higher. It's not been the year we wanted. But nobody's quit. Nobody on the team. Certainly not Harrison.

I will sit here and tell you that I've worked with a lot of drivers over the years. Some guys are quicker than others to point fingers when things aren't going right. Not once, not once, has he questioned anything or questioned us or what we were doing. We all just kind of kept pulling the rope the right direction. Good things happened.

Q. Harrison, understanding the history of this team, the drivers who have won for this team, has any of that set in for you?

HARRISON BURTON: No, not at all (smiling).

But what's special is what all these guys just said to me. Yeah, it's been -- like they said, we haven't performed the way we wanted to, but I try to show up the same way every day like we have a chance to win the next weekend, because you do. It resets every weekend. How you finish last weekend doesn't matter this weekend.

The way our format is, I knew especially coming to here, Darlington, now Atlanta after that, now that we're in the Playoffs, those are all great racetracks for us, great racetracks for this race team.

You just don't quit. I mean, yeah, it means so much. Especially the first year I wanted to be so badly with those guys that were up on the wall. I still did obviously. But to go through what we went through, to go through what I've gone through, doubting myself, doubting everything. I mean, I didn't know if I wanted to do this anymore at times. I mean, it's so hard. When you get kicked in the teeth over and over and over and over again, you really find out who you are, why you do what you do.

It's for moments like this that you can't put into words, have all these people next to me that still were believing in me, still were trying every weekend to try to put their best foot forward so I could put my best foot forward.

It's just really, really special, really, really cool. Like I said earlier, when the walls are closing in, I think we won the hundredth Wood Brothers win in the most Wood Brothers way possible. We'd been down and out and we came back swinging. We're going to continue to do that until my time here is up.

I know these guys are going to continue to do that in the future, as well.

Q. Harrison, given the successes that Austin and Todd, the success you all have had, how much more does tonight mean? How important is that friendship to have?

HARRISON BURTON: It's been pretty special. Pretty rare you get a group of friends like that, especially as competitors. I was the best man in Todd's wedding. Cindric is not married, so I wasn't that yet. I don't know if I will be or not (smiling).

Todd came and hugged me on the front straightaway. I think Austin almost blew up his engine revving it and fist pumping. We had dinner in Michigan during the rain delay. We were all sitting there, very selfishly, all of us were thinking it was us. We were all saying the winner of the Daytona race is sitting at this table, which is ridiculous that it worked out that way because the odds are so slim. But that was pretty cool.

This little dude right here, who is asleep, told me all day over and over again that I was going to win, that today was my day. It was just cool how, like, sitting through the restart you're thinking about that. Oh, I guess the other guys are kind of towards the back, I got to carry it for the friendship, carry it for him who told me I was going to win. It's pretty neat.

Q. Harrison, did you have confidence in yourself going into the final restart?

JEREMY BULLINS: Damn right he did.

Q. Not really a position you've been in. We've heard other guys say, I got to learn how to win again.

HARRISON BURTON: Yeah, I did. I've been really fortunate and won a lot of races when I was younger, at New Smyrna Speedway, I remember racing Todd Majeski every night, having to beat him, looking over at him, he was older than me, he was going to be better than me on this restart. Finding a way to beat him. He's really, really, really hard to beat. Then you look at Kyle Busch in a Cup car next to you, think kind of the same thing.

You just have to rely on the film you watched, rely on the situations you've been in. I've been fortunate to lead races at this racetrack, make mistakes at this racetrack, and in situations that, yeah, I mean, I had a chance to win, but not like tonight when you have a restart on the front row with a green-white-checkered. I just kind of relied on that and relied on just the opportunity and just focusing in on the moment on getting my side drafts right, keeping Parker Retzlaff hooked up, who by the way in his second Cup race ever did one of the best jobs I've ever seen pushing. He had me crossed up a few times where I was sideways out of control. I could tell even to the restart he gave me space enough to where I could gather the car and then push me again. You see a lot of guys just kind of run through you in that moment, especially at the end of these races.

Huge hats off to him. I owe him, I don't know how old he is, a beer if he's old enough, or what. He did a great job, for sure.

Q. You haven't announced when you're doing next year. A lot of talk potentially could be in any of the three national series. Were you looking at these last 12 races, not knowing whether you'll ever be back in Cup again or do you look at it as you know you'll work yourself back, you have to win in these next 12?

HARRISON BURTON: Yes and no. You never know when you have a chance to drive again. You never know when you have a chance. This could all fall apart tomorrow. This is such a privilege to do every weekend. Even if you run in the trucks series or the Xfinity Series or late models, it's such a privilege to get to drive a race car.

I get the privilege to drive the No. 21 for Wood Brothers Racing. That to me is all you need, right? I've had a chance to do that for three years, to work with these guys for three years, learn all I can. I'm confident in myself as a driver that I can do things when I'm at my best. Tonight I feel I was at my best.

I feel like it worked out. Obviously we got fortunate at times, too. But when the chips are down, we all did a good job. Jason Jarrett, my spotter, did a good job of making things work out perfectly.

Q. The Wood Brothers and Daytona is such a winning combination. I believe this is the 15th time the Wood Brothers have gone to Victory Lane here at Daytona.

HARRISON BURTON: Pretty good.

Q. Combine that with the 100th victory, how special is it to get it done here at a track where you've had a lot of success before?

HARRISON BURTON: Any of you guys? Me first? I wasn't here for any of those, but...

What I do know is, like, Trevor Bayne winning the Daytona 500, or all these guys throughout the years, all these great finishes, the 21 is always involved. To have my name above the door of the 21 crossing the line at Daytona, I mean, that's pretty awesome, right? That's just stuff when you're racing quarter midgets and late models growing up, that's what you dream of, is a situation like this.

It's just really cool. I don't know. Just to be involved with this group and get to have spent the last three years with this group has been special. Now to win for them is even cooler.

Q. Harrison, when you see people like Logano, Blaney, drivers coming to congratulate you, how much more special is it knowing that these competitors, peers, they want to be part of that celebration?

HARRISON BURTON: It's cool. I spent a lot of time with those guys, especially Joey, Ryan, Austin, as our kind of alliance members. I've asked them a ton of questions, bothered them at times. Just tried to learn as much as I can from them, try and do right by them as well, try to help them throughout the race. Hopefully it will be reciprocated at the end. Today it was.

For Bubba Wallace last to come up, too, who I think that really hurt him in the points situation, for him to come up and say congratulations meant a lot to me. I know that takes a lot when you're a competitor. He's been working really hard to try to get in the Playoffs. It's just how the sport is. It's so cutthroat.

For those guys that you race with week in and week out, to say congratulations, it's really cool. Means a lot.

Q. Jon, you said recently that since you've been in this new role, something you found is how much you enjoy or how much it's meant to wear Wood Brothers Racing gear. How much will you be wearing now and how much more does it mean having this under your belt?

JON WOOD: They stay on my ass about that.

HARRISON BURTON: I like the T-shirt.

JON WOOD: It's a different time now (smiling).

I find myself wearing this stuff, like a hat. I don't even wear hats. It's like I'm now a part of this. Like I talked about in the podcast, this win in 2017, I'd have been in that back corner looking at my watch, How much longer is this going to take? I didn't feel a part of it.

Now it's like it's just different. I think it took that promotion for me to feel that way. I haven't really done anything. I mean, I'll take the credit for it, change in leadership being what brought us here. The truth is, I haven't done anything (smiling).

Yeah, I mean, it was like therapy when I talked to you. Yeah, again, I'm really proud of these guys and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Q. Jeremy, in February in Media Day Harrison told us that you had taken him aside and told him he needed to take more of a leadership role this year. How have you seen him mature this year as a driver and as a person?

JEREMY BULLINS: It's like I told him, if you want to take the next step as a driver, that's a big part of it, is being the leader of the team.

We can prepare the cars and we can prepare him all week long, but when the race starts, it's really up to him to get the job done.

I think today is kind of like, you look at the situation he's put in, having to race Kyle Busch at the end for the win, I think there's a little bit of irony in the fact that '99 Blaney had to race Kyle for the win, irony there. To see these guys, these young kids, step up when they get that opportunity, that's really what that means, right?

You put yourself in that situation where you have to be -- I can't help them at that point, right? We've done all we can do. Got fuel, good tires. He's on the front row. I can't help him. We're a spectator like everybody else. For him to step up and get in the position to do what he needed to do to win the race, that's what becoming a leader is as a driver.

For him, it's just part of the process of growing and maturing and learning the things. Once you learn how to win, once you figure out what that feels like, what it took to get there, it gets a lot easier for these guys.

Eddie told me when I started in 1999 that you never know when you're going to win the next one. For him, you have to savor the first one and work your butt off to get the next one.

Q. Harrison, how would you from that day in February evaluate yourself as maturing and the change you've seen in yourself?

HARRISON BURTON: If you told me then I would be in the Playoffs and have a race win, I'd be like, Sweet (smiling). That's cool.

As a person, I've just grown a lot in the hardship. That's where you grow as a person, is when things are hard. I've just had more times than I want had to go to the shop and look at a mistake I made on film, look at a move I missed on film, look at a wreck I couldn't control or whatever. All these things seemed to add up and add up and add up.

Then it's going to be cool on Monday to go to the shop and be the race winner. That's really, really cool.

For me, I think I've grown a lot in that hardship. I found out a lot about myself. Found out what drives me, what makes me want to do this. It's not necessarily the moments like this. I think it's the moments that lead up to this, the relationships I've formed with guys like the people at this table, the guys that work on the race car, the management at Wood Brothers and at Team Penske, our alliance partner. I've made a lot of great friendships. That means a lot.

To kind of find a way to come through for those guys is really, really, really cool.

Q. A couple of moments of chaos during this race, obviously two big ones. You get to the end of the race, Kyle Busch is there. In your mind, do you have to force yourself to think what a big moment it is, force it out of your mind? What are you thinking?

HARRISON BURTON: Yeah, I think the red flag was kind of nice really because I got to sit there and kind of work through that, work through what I wanted to do, what I needed to accomplish, what I wanted to do on the launch. If he did clear me, like he did, what is my next move, what is my move after that. I could kind of put a game plan together, cover the races, right?

Obviously there's split-second decisions you have to make that are not scripted, but I could come up with my game script of I want to do this to Kyle to slow him down if we're side by side going into turn one, or if he clears me, I need to get back to Christopher to pull him apart from Kyle so he doesn't have forward momentum and we don't get three rows back. I was able to work through that. It just made the last lap slow down.

Until off of turn four, I was like, Holy shit, I'm leading. It worked, that's cool. Then I had to make a few big blocks. Sorry for cussing. I had to make a few big blocks. At that point you have to do it or you're not going to win.

Jeremy, under the caution, told me about having to make the blocks that you need to make to win these races. I got to make one of those and it worked out. I was sideways across the line, doing all kinds of crazy stuff.

But it worked out good and we got the win.

Q. At the end is there a moment where you realize you're going to do that or not till after?

HARRISON BURTON: I didn't do that till I crossed the line. First off, you can't count out Kyle Busch, right? I was trying to put myself in his shoes of what is he thinking, what is he trying to do to pass me? Where is his help with Christopher and all that?

To be honest, once I made the block and pulled across his nose, kind of took all his energy by making a late block, to where obviously I almost crashed, but that's what I needed to do to take the energy away from him, then I thought I had kind of done it. Until then, I wasn't feeling comfortable out there, that's for sure.

Q. It seems like the common thread between you and the team is that this is a big family thing. Your dad got to call your first win, got to run down there and give you a hug.

HARRISON BURTON: Did you call it or were you quiet? He was quiet. I won an Xfinity race and he didn't say a dang word except he felt bad for Noah that I passed him on the last lap. What is that, dude? You can be excited. It's okay (laughter).

JEREMY BULLINS: Harrison's opportunity to get back at Jeff (smiling).

HARRISON BURTON: He doesn't have a microphone. I have a microphone (smiling).

Q. I would love to hear how does this resonate differently from other wins that you have had in your careers because of that strong family aspect?

HARRISON BURTON: I guess I'll finish on my dad without making fun of him. He's been there for me, he's called me when I don't want to answer his phone call after a bad race, talked me through what I need to do, how I need to handle things.

He obviously raised me, and my mom as well, both raised me to be the guy that I am today. I'm proud of that off the racetrack alone. Then to make the nights that my mom spent on the road quarter midget racing with me while my dad was Cup racing, to make the effort that my dad took away from his Cup racing opportunity to help me in quarter midgets and late model racing to make that worth it to win at the Cup level, I've been told by him that he's not proud of me based off whether I win or lose, it's how I handle myself and what I do.

But, for me, winning is way better than losing (smiling). It's just cool to make that, for them, seem like it paid off. And for me, all those nights that I spent working and thinking and watching film, my fiancée watched me sit in the motorhome all day while she was bored out of her mind watching different Daytona races and how they ended. That's all I watched today, how they ended, what the people had to do to win. It's cool to make all that worth it.

Q. Anybody from the Wood Brothers?

EDDIE WOOD: It's like he said. Winning at Daytona, there's nothing better than winning at Daytona. We start our season out here with the biggest race of the year. Daytona is my favorite track.

Winning here is bigger to me than winning somewhere else. It's just special. Our dad raced on the beach, actually on the sand. God, that was almost 75 years ago. I think he ran the first race he ever run on the sand in 1953. That's a long time ago.

Like I said, winning Daytona is just really special for our family.

Q. You've gone through a lot in the last two hours. When things settle down, of all the things that you're experiencing here, what do you hope you remember, you hope you never forget?

HARRISON BURTON: I hope I remember the feeling when you cross the line and you know you win. I hope I remember that, like I said earlier, for the first time in my life I cried after I won. I hope I remember not doing a burnout because Eddie last year told me if I win, doing a burnout, that's not cool. That was cool. My dad never did burnouts. I kind of got to do the full picture there of the Alan Kulwicki kind of Polish victory lap there across the whole front stretch and just waving at what seemed like a million fans out there was really cool.

When it hit home the most was when I got out of the car, turn around, everyone that's laid a finger on this race car, laid a finger on the media side of things, management side of things, on my life as far as raising me, my fiancée has been on my side, I turn around, they're all right there. Watching them all run out and celebrate with me was awesome.

JON WOOD: Kim was excited. She was pumped.

HARRISON BURTON: I hope the pit box is okay (smiling).

JON WOOD: I've never seen anybody twist themselves up the way she can contort at these intense races. And Jeff is just so like he is right now, it's such a contrast between the two.

The thing for me, I'm sitting here thinking how bad I feel for the guys on the airplane that are waiting on us. But the reason that this is happening is because so many people appreciate what these two have done for the sport, and they've just been here for so long and formed all these relationships that it just feels like it doesn't ever end.

That's just a testament to what they mean to so many people that are in this garage and fans alike. It's really neat to just stand back and watch and see it, see the caliber of people that go out of their way to say congratulations. You saw Len get up a second ago. That was Jim France that called him. I'm sure that's why he ran over there and took the call. Jim Farley, too.

To them, getting a call from them, it's the same as one of the long-time fans, same thing. They treat everybody equally. It's really just something to sit back and watch. It's a really neat experience.

Q. We all know Kyle Busch needs a win to continue his career seasons in a row. You've raced for him in the past. He said there was a right way and wrong way to beat you. He wasn't going to do it the wrong way. What does that mean to you?

HARRISON BURTON: It means a lot. Yeah, I mean, for a guy like Kyle Busch, who has been through what he's been through this year, kind of similar story where his expectations were higher than where their year has been, this was a chance for them to turn that around the way we did tonight, too. He could have very easily wrecked me. I wasn't in his shoes, but I was pretty sideways.

I mean, for me, it means a lot. Kyle I think has done a lot for a lot of young kids' careers. So yeah, for him to race me the right way when I'm the guy that is low in points, if he wrecked me I don't think people would really look twice about it, right? It's just the way these races have gotten. He did things the right way.

I think that means a lot for him as a person. It's cool for sure.

EDDIE WOOD: I wanted to say, every Tuesday night at Millbridge, the go-kart track, I sit with Tom Busch. He's the only guy that's got a blanket to sit on. You don't get dirty. I sit with him every Tuesday night. When I see him this coming Tuesday, I want to tell him how proud I am of Kyle, the way he raced Harrison. That's the way you're supposed to do it, and they did it.

Q. Jon, you said you were there in 2017, you kind of took this in. You've taken on a bigger leadership role. Did doubt ever creep in at any point of are we going to get to the number 100?

JON WOOD: I don't know that it's doubt. It's just something that at least I never thought about. It just never crossed my mind. Like, the day you die or the day you get married, I don't know. It never crossed my mind.

People would ask about it. They would say, Do you have a logo for your hundredth win? It's like, Why would I do that? It's just not something that you think about.

I'm not directing that at Harrison. It's just not something that you forecast, something that you expect to experience. Then it happens and it's like, I probably should have prepared for this a little bit better 'cause we did it.

Yeah, I don't have a better answer other than it's something I never really thought about.

Q. Harrison, to see your fiancée's emotions, to have that moment with her, what was going through your mind and what has she meant to you through this whole journey?

HARRISON BURTON: That's a hard question to answer. I think I look back at just the things that I've done - she's videoing me so I have to say something good - I look back on the things that I have screwed up at or the things I haven't done right, I always try to do right, I always try to do the right thing. Just even the way my Cup career has gone. I've never had someone that's been committed to me the way that she's been since we were 15 years old.

We've been together from really forever for me, my entire high school, her entire college, I didn't go to college, but her entire college, just been through the failures, through the successes together. She never has changed the way she looks at me because of my finishing position, good or bad.

First off, when we first started dating, she didn't care. Now that we're engaged, she's invested in me and she helps me, motivates me to do the right thing. To share that moment with her is just amazing, yeah.

EDDIE WOOD: Best way to celebrate is just go ahead and get married. I've been telling her that all day.

HARRISON BURTON: You told me that in the off week, too.

THE MODERATOR: With that, inspection has cleared, you're officially the winners. Congratulations.