NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Driver Harrison Burton Wins at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park
- Jul 26, 2017
Burton, who finished in sixth place at Berlin Raceway in Michigan a week earlier, battled Todd Gilliland to the checkered flag at Thompson Speedway. “It was awesome. I was pretty focused,” Burton said. “I didn’t really think about having fun. But it was fun. Looking back at it, we would kind of make a run in the middle and it wouldn’t work and I’d fall back had to slowly chip away at the 16 (Gilliland). And it finally felt right. “I kind of just drove it in and it stuck pretty well. Got to his door and from there it was just side by side for a few laps. That was really fun. It was pretty intense. I don’t think I breathed through it.” Gilliland, the reigning K&N Pro Series West champion, won the East Series race at Berlin Raceway. Gilliland is second in the K&N Pro Series East standings. He wrecked in practice before the race and his team had to repair the car. Gilliland said repairing the car took a lot of work, but it paid off in the race. “I wrecked in practice on Friday. I was having a lot of fun before that,” Gilliland said. “To rebuild our car, it was tough on our whole team. I really hate it for them. It ended up being a lot of fun in the race. I hope I get to come back here.”
“The battle was huge there,” Gilliland said. “I knew it was going to be for the win. I went too hard before that just to try and stay in front of the 12 (Burton). That’s how it works in these K&N races. Once you get out front you really have to try and stay out there. I was trying everything I could. We were right on the edge all night. We ended up being a little too free there at the end there.” K&N Pro Series rookie Chase Purdy won the pole and led the first 16 laps of the race. Gilliland took the lead from Purdy on lap 17 and was out front for a race-high 58 laps. The K&N Pro Series East brought NASCAR back to Thompson Speedway for the first time since 2009. The track was a regular stop for the old NASCAR Busch Series. Burton joined an impressive list of race winners at Thompson Speedway. NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series drivers Martin Truex Jr. and Trevor Bayne, former Cup Series driver Ricky Craven and NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee Mike Stefanik have won races at Thompson Speedway. Joey Kourafas, who won the inaugural Busch North Series championship in 1987, presented Burton the trophy for winning the race at Thompson Speedway. “The Burtons, we’re kind of like a team,” Burton said. “Everyone roots for each other even if we're racing each other It’s cool that we’re kind of branching out a little bit and trying some new race tracks. It’s cool to add the Burton name to someplace else.”
Ronnie Bassett Jr. was third in the K&N Pro Series East race at Thompson Speedway. Rookie Doug Coby was fourth, followed by Dillon Bassett in fifth. “We managed our tires,” Ronnie Bassett said. “The two leaders got out front for a pretty good distance. We managed our rear tires in case we had a late-race restart. We would have a little bit to maybe battle with them.” The next K&N Pro Series East race is at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. | |||
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