MARTINSVILLE, VA. (AP) - Jeb Burton was more than a little emotional after winning the pole position for Saturday’s truck race at Martinsville Speedway, the track just about 60 miles from where he grew up in South Boston.
“I was crying like a baby when I got out of that race car,” a still emotional Burton said after breaking the Martinsville Speedway qualifying record with a lap of 96.666 miles per hour. “It means a lot to me and my family.”
That family includes his father, Ward Burton, who won five races in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series during a career that spanned from 1994-07, and his uncle, Jeff Burton, who has 21 victories in nASCAR’s premier series and still races.
The race Saturday is just the seventh start in the truck series for the younger Burton, 20. He finished fifth in the season-opening race at Daytona, the only race the series has run so far this season.
He finished 13th in his series debut at Martinsville last fall, and will be racing for the track’s signature trophy, a grandfather clock, against 35 others when the green flag drops on Saturday.
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