Jeb Burton recovered from a violent accident in Happy Hour practice caused by a wheel failure on his No. 13 Estes Toyota Tundra early Fridayafternoon at Dover International Speedway by salvaging an 18th-place finish in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ Lucas Oil 200.
Burton suffered an additional failure in the race, which caused no further damage to his back-up Estes Tundra. That was critical as that Toyota is the team’s primary weapon for next weekend’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, where Burton is the defending champion.
Burton fell two laps behind after feeling a wheel failure coming but having to pit under a green flag. He fell as much as five laps behind as crew chief Jeriod Prince and his team cautiously assessed the status of Burton’s Tundra after the second failure of the day.
After that, at one point Burton was turning lap times on the “Monster Mile” that were faster than eventual winner Kyle Busch and his primary chaser, Burton’s ThorSport Racing teammate Matt Crafton.
Between them Crafton and Busch led 196 of 200 laps but being as quick was small consolation to Burton.
“It was frustrating because our Estes Tundra was fast — plain and simple,” Burton said in a quiet moment after the race. “You never want to play defense at a race track and it’s especially hard when Jeriod and the guys put together a Tundra — a backup Tundra — as good as we had.”
Burton lined-up 12th after Keystone Light Pole Qualifying was replaced by the fateful early afternoon “Happy Hour.” He started from the back of the field for using a backup Tundra and never really had a chance to show its full potential.
He had raced up nearly into the top 15 before a repeat of the wheel issue, resulting in deformation that caused the bead on the tire in practice to break and deflate the tire with catastrophic results. Burton finished the race on wheels borrowed from his teammates.
Crafton, who came into the event leading the championship became the second ThorSport Racing driver victimized by a wheel failure after he ran either first or second for more than three-quarters of the race.
Both teammates were sore, but otherwise OK after their initial medical assessments. Burton’s heartache was more difficult to measure as a large contingent from new full-time sponsor Estes Express Lines was on hand to cheer on their team.
“Yeah, we can take something positive out of this — we have to,” Burton said, shaking his head. “We’re going to a track where I’m real comfortable and man, we’ve run well at Kansas and Charlotte — two other mile-and-a-half tracks.
“If Jeriod and I and the guys keep working together like we have been and the trucks keep getting better and we don’t have any more bad stuff happen to us, we can get back into this (championship) race.”
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