Defending Pocono Winner Harrison Burton Back for More with Morton Buildings
Last year’s Pocono race winner Harrison Burton returns to the seat with Venturini Motorsports (VMS) to defend his race title in Friday’s ARCA Menards Series’ General Tire #AnywhereIsPossible 200 at Pocono Raceway.
Coming off a fourth-place finish last Thursday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Burton, 18, will roll out his No.20 Morton Buildings Toyota in hopes of finding another superspeedway victory. A three-time ARCA winner, Burton notched his first series win on the half-mile surface at Toledo Speedway in 2017. His two other wins have come via the superspeedway – Pocono Raceway (June of ’18) and at again at this year’s season opener Daytona International Speedway.
“This track is amazing,” said the recent high school graduate. “Pocono is a technical race track with every corner being completely different than the last so that’s a lot of fun for the drivers. It creates a lot of good racing opportunities, good passing zones, there’s drafting on the straightaways and I’m excited to be back to defend.”
This week’s race marks the third time Burton has raced at Pocono.
A member of Toyota Racing Development (TRD), Burton is running partial race schedules with VMS and Joe Gibbs Racing (NASCAR XFINITY Series) in addition to his full-time efforts with Kyle Busch Motorsports in the NASCAR Gander Outdoor Truck Series
Since joining the series in 2016, the Huntersville, NC native has made 14 ARCA starts – scoring nine top-5 and 13 top-10 finishes to go along with his three victories.
Prior to Friday’s race Harrison will join his VMS teammates Christian Eckes, Michael Self and Hailie Deegan for an exclusive Pocono Raceway Kids’ Club appearance on the Fan Stage from 2:00-2:30 PM EDT.
VMS driver development history at Pocono Raceway:
In 2009, Joey Logano became Venturini Motorsports’ first development driver to win at Pocono Raceway. Brennan Poole handed VMS their only other track win in 2012. Poole had four career ARCA poles at Pocono over five starts. Frank Kimmel, ARCA’s all-time race winner with 80-victories, earned his 45th career pole at Pocono driving for VMS in 2015.
Weekend track and broadcast schedule:
Practice for the General Tire 150 starts Friday, May 31 at 9 am ET, followed by General Tire Pole Qualifying at 12 noon. The race is scheduled to start at 5:45 pm ET and will be televised live on FOX SPORTS 2 with a same day replay on FOX SPORTS 1 at 8 pm ET.
Sources: Venturini Motorsports