Editor’s Note: Today’s Wood Brothers Racing preview continues NASCAR.com’s countdown of team previews for the 2024 Cup Series season, ranked in reverse order of best finish in last year’s owner standings.
Wood Brothers Racing
Manufacturer: Ford
Engine: Roush-Yates Engines
Driver-crew chief pairings: Harrison Burton-Jeremy Bullins
Team outlook: As it heads into the third season with driver Harrison Burton, Wood Brothers Racing hopes to improve its performance significantly in 2024. With their alliance team, Team Penske, having won back-to-back series championships and Wood Brothers ranking 31st in the final standings, all eyes will be on Wood Brothers to return to Victory Lane for the first time since 2017. That moment saw Ryan Blaney, now the defending series champion heading into 2024, secure the team’s 99th win.
RELATED: Opening championship odds | 2024 schedule
Harrison Burton, No. 21 Ford
Experience: Two full-time seasons in the Cup Series
2023 stats: 2 top 10s, 25 laps led
2024 championship odds (DraftKings): 600-1
Outlook: Harrison Burton’s Cup Series career had an upside-down start, literally, with the 23-year-old ending his first Daytona 500 by flipping through the air before landing back on his wheels. Now, entering his third season as the driver of the No. 21 for Wood Brothers Racing, he’ll be looking to take a right-side-up approach to the 2024 campaign. He has certainly shown flashes of success with a total of four top 10s and one top-five finish in his previous two seasons – in addition to a fruitful, four-win Xfinity Series campaign in 2020 – but has not shown much for consistency yet at the Cup level.
Stringing together strong results will be the key and the mark of improvement for Burton in the new year. With his Ford-affiliated counterparts at Team Penske each scoring victories — and the only two championships in the Next Gen era — in the same time Harrison has been a Cup Series mainstay, many are looking to the Huntersville, North Carolina native to be the next Ford driver to make it to Victory Lane. Perhaps a spot in the Cup Series Playoffs, too, is in order if everything goes according to plan.
NASCAR.com 2024 team previews schedule
Jan. 15: Legacy Motor Club
Jan. 16: Spire Motorsports
Jan. 17: Kaulig Racing
Jan. 18: Wood Brothers Racing
Jan. 22: Rick Ware Racing
Jan. 23: Richard Childress Racing
Jan. 24: Stewart-Haas Racing
Jan. 25: Front Row Motorsports
Jan. 26: JTG Daugherty Racing
Jan. 29: Trackhouse Racing
Jan. 30: RFK Racing
Feb. 6: 23XI Racing
Feb. 7: Joe Gibbs Racing
Feb. 8: Hendrick Motorsports
Feb. 9: Team Penske