Harrison Burton explains the dynamic with his dad Jeff Burton as a driver and broadcaster

Being from a racing family can be tough. When your dad is calling races from the booth for half the season, like Harrison Burton, it’s tougher. The NASCAR driver carries the Burton legacy with him, but it comes with a twist.

Jeff Burton is one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers. He earned 21 Cup Series wins and 6 poles. 27 wins in the Xfinity Series. Two Coca-Cola 600 wins and a Southern 500. So, he knows a thing or two about racing.

When it comes to Harrison Burton, his son, Jeff stays out of the way for the most part. After all, for half the year, he’s in the NBC booth calling races and can’t be too partial to his son. Harrison is in his third year in the Cup Series and hoping to make strides this year with Wood Brothers Racing.

Talking with Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports, Harrison opened up about the relationship he and his dad have. When it comes to the balance between giving advice and keeping his nose out of his son’s career, it’s a mixed bag.

“He does a little of both. I think there’s times when he’s very useful and with his racing IQ, he’s been around for so long, he’s seen it all, he’s done it all. If I didn’t use him as a resource in my racing career I’d be dumb, right?”

Harrison Burton knows that for the first half of the season, his dad is in his corner. Then, things change once NBC comes around.

“It’s a funny dynamic. But when FOX is around for the first half, he’s dad, and the second half [with NBC] he’s a reporter.”

Harrison Burton is the son of former NASCAR star and current NBC analyst Jeff Burton. What Harrison said about the advice he gets from his father and how his father handles talking about his son on the air. pic.twitter.com/emyVXZgA1s

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) March 28, 2024

Harrison Burton is hoping to force his dad’s hand this season and make him talk about him on the broadcasts.

Harrison Burton not off to a hot start

Looking at Harrison Burton’s season so far, things aren’t great. It looks to be almost identical to his 2023 season through the first six races. Just a single top-15 finish with a DNF and a handful of finishes from P27-P32.

This Wood Brothers car is more or less the fourth Team Penske entry. Let’s also remember that Front Row Motorsports has an alliance with Penske now, making that camp fairly large. This basically makes Burton teammates with his Cup Series rookie class cohorts, Austin Cindric and Todd Gilliland. All three need to improve from last season

Cindric has a top-5 finish this season and has shown some speed. The 2022 Daytona 500 winner has to start getting top-10 finishes and better more often. For now, decent start for Cindric. Then you go to Gilliland, the finishes aren’t there but he’s led laps this season and Front Row as a whole has improved on speed alone.

Harrison Burton has a P11 finish from Atlanta, but it has been P30, P27, P32, and P30 since then. Richmond is a good track for him, he has a top-20 finish in each of the last two spring races at the track. Consistent finishes in the top-20 could go a long way for Burton and the 21 team.