Harrison Burton shuts down idea that young drivers don’t race each other hard because of friendships

There is a lot of young talent in NASCAR from the Truck, Xfinity, and Cup Series, and many drivers like Harrison Burton have friends among their competitors. Burton came into the Cup Series with Austin Cindric and Todd Gilliland, two drivers he is good friends with, and he has more pals in the field as well.

Drivers like Noah Gragson, Cindric, Gilliland, Burton, and more are fierce competitors. Gragson has gotten into multiple fist fights during his racing career. That includes a fight with Harrison Burton.

Burton will be back in the Xfinity Series in 2025. That could bring with it a new set of frustrations. During his last three years in the Cup Series, he has had to race his friends many times.

Despite having a win to his name, Burton is on his way out of Cup. Just showing how difficult it can be to compete at the highest levels of NASCAR. So, do these drivers back off when they race friends? Or is it like the old days still where drivers give their buddies more hell than others?

Harrison Burton believes it is the same as it has always been.

“No chance,” Burton said, via NASCAR.com. “I can promise you, we race each other harder. I can think off the top of my head the amount of times me and Todd Gilliland have ran into each other, me and Noah having our fight or racing really hard.”

Young drivers are often scrutinized with a magnifying glass. A lot come and go and don’t leave a mark, just fill a seat. Burton is 24 years old, he still has time to regroup and come back better.

If that means he has to race, or even fight, friends then so be it. It is what these drivers signed up for when they wanted to race for a living. There are no friends on the pavement.

“We’ve all had our moments where we don’t like each other,” Burton continued. “Like me and Noah fought each other and now are friends, right? And we were friends before that and are friends after that. And I think it just shows there’s a fraternity there, and we all came up through the same roots together, race each other and then just get along good. We’re all just friends, right? But then when the helmet turns on, we race each other really, really, really hard, and obviously to the point where we’ll fight each other as well.”

Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland, and Austin Cindric all entered the Cup Series in 2022. Cindric now has two wins, including a Daytona 500. Gilliland is the new face of Front Row Motorsports. Burton earned the 100th win in Wood Brothers history at Daytona this summer.

Despite being good friends, all three drivers left it all on the track against each other. For two of them, things are working out just fine at Team Penske and Front Row Motorsports. For Burton, it’s back to the Xfinity Series to rebuild his image as a Cup Series talent.