When Jeff Burton won a NASCAR race despite a wreck destroying his racecar

Just two days after Jeff Burton's son celebrated his first Cup race victory, NASCAR took a trip down memory lane to a race 25 years ago when the weather played in favor of the elder Burton. On March 21, 1999, during the TranSouth Financial 400 at Darlington Raceway, Burton was leading the pack for 45 laps around the 'Lady in Black' when rain abruptly stopped the race for good.

Amid the downpour, chaos unfolded on the front stretch on Lap 162. As cars jostled and braked hard, Burton collided with Jerry Nadeau and slammed into the outside wall. Burton's right front wheel was skewed at a 30-degree angle, and the tire went flat. Despite the severe damage, he managed to hobble around the track—right front tire smoking intensely—behind the pace car until a red flag on Lap 164 cut the race short, well before the planned 293 laps.

Nostalgically recalling that event, NASCAR on NBC recently shared a video of Jeff Burton clinching a win extraordinarily just before the regular season finale at Darlington. Posting the video on their official X handle, the NASCAR on NBC team wrote:

"Wrecked car? No problem. Jeff Burton's craziest of his 21 NASCAR Cup Series wins came 25 years ago at Darlington."

Check out the video footage below:

The victory marked Burton's seventh Cup win and was the second of six wins he amassed that season, which included a Darlington double dip, both wins shortened by rain.

In the video, Burton was captured during his post-race interview, celebrating that unexpected victory, and he said:

"To win at Darlington means a lot to me. And a win like that, I don't know how do you do it much better than that. It's going to be a lot of fun driving that tore-up thing in the victory lane. We might have to get the liftgate to get it up on there. But we are going to take it however we can get it."

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Jeff Burton shares joy over his son's first Cup Series win

As his son Harrison Burton celebrated his first career win in the Cup Series, Jeff Burton had a front-row seat from the broadcast booth and made his way down to join the victory celebration. Overwhelmed with pride during the post-race interview, father Burton shared:

"It's pretty amazing. It's been a really hard year, obviously, and hard three years really. And I'm really proud of Harrison for his dedication. He's not complained, he's not cried, [....] he's just said 'hey I got to be better' and he's just gone to work. [...] It's a weight off your shoulders when you want something so badly and you can't find a way to get it just wears on you."

Check out Jeff Burton's comments below:

With this win propelling him into the playoffs for the first time in his Cup career, it'll be interesting to see how Harrison Burton fares driving alongside the legends in the next rounds.