Burton readies for Camping World Truck Series debut with father at his side – Nascar

Related: Martinsville practice results | Views from opening day

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Heading into this weekend, Harrison Burton’s experience level at Martinsville Speedway was next to zero, counting only a smattering of laps shaking down his cousin Jeb’s Late Model car not long ago.

His lap count went up significantly Friday in practice for his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut in Saturday’s Texas Roadhouse 200 Presented by Alpha Energy Solutions (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Should things go according to plan, he’ll add another 200 more circuits to his developing background at the .526-mile track in his first NASCAR national series event.

But the 16-year-old NASCAR Next driver has some tangible factors to help offset his lack of laps around the historic short track — a top-quality Kyle Busch Motorsports truck and some sage advice from his father, Jeff Burton, who logged 39 career starts here, including a win in 1997, before transitioning to the NBC Sports broadcast team.

The elder Burton was by his son’s side after Friday’s final practice, providing a sounding board with helpful pointers.

“He’s had tons of experience at places like this and obviously at this very race track, he’s won in the (Sprint) Cup Series which is one of the hardest things to do,” Harrison Burton said. “Obviously he’s a great resource and I’ve utilized him pretty much every day coming up to this event. I’ve talked to him about it and tried to pick his brain as much as I could. He’s really smart about this kind of stuff, that’s for sure.”

Burton posted the seventh-fastest lap in Friday’s early practice and followed that with the 18th spot on the leaderboard in final practice in the KBM No. 18 Toyota. But Friday was also about gaining experience and making first impressions at one of NASCAR’s most rhythm-dependent venues.

“It’s probably one of the hardest race tracks I’ve been to,” Burton said. “I feel like the braking and how to get off the brakes, how to get on them and how far to drive in — it’s so easy to overdrive these corners because they’re so little. Compared to how long the straightaways are, it’s just disproportional. It really throws me for a loop, but I’m learning as fast as I can and I’m trying my hardest.”

Burton’s path to NASCAR’s national ranks has been a fairly conventional one, but with extraordinary progress. He finished seventh this year in his first full season in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, but has also made his mark with an excellent run of Late Model success.

Burton turned 16 on Oct. 9, making him eligible for national series races on tracks 1.25 miles or shorter. Making the move three weeks after blowing out the candles might seem like an accelerated jump, but Burton says he hasn’t locked himself into a firm timetable for his stock-car racing career.

“It’s hard to tell,” Burton said. “Just to make it in one of NASCAR’s three series is so, so tough. You have to do so many things right and have so many things align for you to have an opportunity like I have now, so I didn’t really have a timeline. I was just going to go out every race and race as hard as I could every time I did and hopefully impress some people to get a shot at it.”

The timetable isn’t quite set for 2017 and beyond, Burton said, with plenty of pathways still to be decided in the offseason.

“The schedule’s still in the works, for sure,” Burton said. “We have a lot of options and a lot of things to think about, which is great. You always want to have options and hopefully you make the right choices leading up. It’s tough to foresee the future. We might choose right, we might choose wrong, but no matter what, we’ve got to stay 100 percent committed to our choice. I’m really excited for the future and what it has to come. I hope we make the right choices.”

Burton indicated he has modest goals for his maiden voyage in the truck series, hoping to complete every lap but also keeping the door open to grab more if the opportunity exists. It’s helped having Kyle Busch Motorsports personnel as support, bringing a certain level of swagger in their approach to the race weekend.

“All these guys out here want to come out here and win every single week and that’s what you have to have,” Burton said. “You have to have that drive to come out and beat everyone and walk down pit road and say, ‘I’m going to beat you and you and you and you,’ and that’s what these guys have. They come out here 100 percent committed. There’s a lot of intensity involved, which is awesome. It’s a great environment and I’ve loved it so far.”