Burton wins, SVG engine blows in Daytona derby
An engine blowout saw Shane van Gisbergen become one of many retirements from a wild Coke Zero 400 taken by Harrison Burton after Josh Berry horrifically flipped out of the lead.
On the same day van Gisbergen was locked in to race the NASCAR Cup Series full time in 2025, the Kiwi only completed 80 of the 164 laps in his first top level race at the iconic Florida Superspeedway.
However, SVG had shown some promise, sitting in the top 10 at one point after starting 32nd.
Van Gisbergen was sitting 26th before his Chevrolet engine expired and produced a massive cloud of smoke.
By the time he brought the #16 Kaulig Racing Camaro back to pit road, it was on fire.
The race for victory in the Coke Zero 400 was a wild one being marred by a number of incidents.
A sizable crash disrupted Stage 2 where the top three in the NASCAR Cup Series standings were all involved.
The likes of Chase Elliott, Will Byron and Denny Hamlin were just some of a total of 17 cars caught in a “big one” on the back straight that was sparked by Noah Gragson and Corey LaJoie colliding.
But that was just the start of the drama with the leaders taken out in a wild moment inside the final two laps that sent the race into Overtime due to a red flag and long clean up.
Austin Cindric and Berry appeared to be in control leading the pack at the start of the penultimate lap.
However, contact that appeared to be between third placed Kyle Busch and leader of the inside line Cindric saw the #2 Mustang and Berry into a spin and out of the lead.
Berry flipped onto his roof and skated head first into the fence upside down. The impact left the #4 Mustang spinning on its roof like a matchbox car and thankfully the Stewart-Haas rookie emerged from the frightening and violent crash.
The likes of Erik Jones, William Byron, Austin Dillon, Austin Hill, Todd Gilliland, Zane Smith, Cody Ware and Carson Hocevar were also caught up in the chaos.
When Overtime arrived, Busch appeared to be using his experience to put Richard Childress Racing in the box seat for a vital and timely win.
The #8 led the field as it took the white flag, but Burton got a grand run down the back straight up high with a push from Retzlaff.
Burton made the most of it, surging to the lead and stopping each of Busch’s challenges to win by just 0.047s.
The thriller was Wood Brothers Racing’s 100th win and one both driver and team will never forget.
It only means the intensity will rise even further next weekend at Darlington being the last race for drivers to secure a ticket to the Playoffs.
Photo by Nigel Kinrade / NKP / LAT Images
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