XFINITY: One week after their tangle in Martinsville, Jeb Burton and the HFT #41 team are the only two retirees from Phoenix finale
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
ALL PHOTOS: Brock Beard
Jeb Burton picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series Championship at the Phoenix Raceway when his #27 A.O. Smith Chevrolet crashed after 36 of 200 laps.
The finish, which came in Burton’s 208th series start, was his first of the season and first in a XFINITY Series race since September 10, 2022 at Kansas, 107 races ago. In the XFINITY Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 22nd for the #27, the 414th from a crash, and the 679th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 60th for the #27, the 1,440th from a crash, and the 2,022nd for Chevrolet.
One year ago, in this same championship weekend at Phoenix, Burton made his first Cup start in five years when he drove Team AmeriVet’s #50 Luxedo Chevrolet to a 38th-place finish. Since he was last featured here in 2022, Burton’s focus has very much been his full-time XFINITY deal with Jordan Anderson Racing, and a return to victory lane. He made it there in 2023, scoring his second series win in the spring Talladega race, but finished 12th in the Playoff standings. Were it not for a series of controversial calls this past spring, he may have won it again. When Connor Zilisch was injured in a last-lap wreck while leading, Burton moved into a door-to-door battle with Austin Hill for the lead. When determining who was out front as the field froze, two of the three camera angles shown on the broadcast seemed to show Burton up front. The third, seeming to show Hill up front, was presented as definitive, and Hill received the win. Through the first 32 races of the season, Burton earned eight top-ten finishes – his most since 2021 – but fell short of making a spot in the Playoffs.
Just last Saturday at Martinsville, Burton was on the receiving end of a controversial accident. Burton frequently found himself racing hard with then-Playoff contender (and last year’s LASTCAR XFINITY champion) Sam Mayer in the #41 Audibel Ford. Immediately after the checkered flag, where Mayer fell short of the win he needed to advance, Mayer swerved into Burton, sending Burton spinning driver’s side first into the outside wall. Team owner Jordan Anderson confronted Mayer after the race, after which Mayer’s comments – both on the broadcast and on social media – preceded NASCAR suspending Mayer for Saturday’s championship race. Into the driver’s seat came Ryan Sieg, opening an opportunity for Nick Leitz to run as brother Kyle Sieg’s teammate at RSS Racing.
With Mayer suspended and watching the season finale from the Haas Factory Team’s “war room” back east, both Burton and Sieg were among the 38 entrants for as many starting spots, putting all those drivers into the field. Burton began the weekend a strong 9th-fastest in opening practice with a time of 28.258 seconds (127.398mph), then qualified 11th with a faster lap of 27.817 seconds (129.417mph), just one spot and 15-thousandths of a second behind 10th-place starter Sieg.
Securing the 38th and final starting spot was Dawson Cram, who welcomed several associate sponsors to the sides and once-blank TV panel of his #74 Ox Ranch Texas Chevrolet. Cram put up the slowest overall time of 28.966 seconds (124.284mph), but as still within just 0.139 of 37th-place Josh Williams’ #45 Optum Chevrolet. Joining them at the back was Daniel Dye, who cut down a right-front tire and smacked the Turn 1 wall with just a few seconds left in practice. Dye’s team rolled out their white-painted backup car, and only applied a few decals – including forward-slanting numbers – to his #10 Champion Container Chevrolet. Dye had steered his backup to 33rd on the grid with a lap of 28.420 seconds (126.671mph). Justin Bonsignore, again in relief of William Sawalich, who wasn’t medically cleared following his concussion-like symptoms in Talladega, was also sent to the back in the #18 Soundgear Toyota, but took the green ahead of Dye.
When the green flag dropped, Dye cleared Cram through Turns 1 and 2, putting the #74 back to last at the stripe. By Lap 2, the gap between the final two cars was already over a second, and by Lap 4, that 37th-place car was now the #53 Donate Life Arizona Chevrolet of Joey Gase. Gase then caught and passed Williams on Lap 5, putting the #45 back to 37th, with Cram now closing the gap on both cars. On Lap 7, Glen Reen fell to 36th in the #5 New Wave Bath Ford – a Ford belonging to Joey Gase but serviced by Alpha Prime Racing, the result of both teams’ speculation over the size of the entry list in the weeks leading into the race. By Lap 16, Williams was pulling away from Reen, and by Lap 19, last-place Cram was just two seconds ahead of then-leader Taylor Gray. On Lap 22, Gray got under Cram off Turn 2 and cleared him, putting the #74 the first car one lap down.
Next to join the battle was Patrick Emerling, whose #07 Firman Power Equipment Chevrolet battled his SS-Green Light Racing teammate Garrett Smithley in the #14 ThermoTech Chevrolet for 34th, which Smithley took on Lap 18. By Lap 24, the now 35th-place Emerling had been caught by 36th-place Reen, but on Lap 26, both were caught by leader Gray, causing the two to lose touch with one another. At the same time, Cram continued to negotiate the faster traffic whistling past him. On Lap 30, a brief logjam formed as Christian Eckes’ #16 Campers Inn RV Mobile Medic Chevrolet raced alongside Harrison Burton’s #25 Dead On Tools Ford, only for both to check-up behind Cram. And by Lap 32, Cram had been lapped by everyone down to 22nd-place Nick Leitz, who took the controls of RSS Racing’s #28 Tap and Sons Ford after Ryan Sieg landed his relief driver role.
But on Lap 37, Jeb Burton cut a right-front tire and bounced off the outside wall in Turn 2. He made it to pit road without drawing a caution, but had heavy right-side damage. The crew put out a fire behind the right-front wheel and attempted repairs, taking the last spot from Cram as they quickly fell three laps down. On Lap 48, during the caution that ended Stage 1, a tow truck was dispatched to tow Burton’s car behind the wall at the dogleg. Burton climbed aboard the passenger seat of the medical cart and took the mandatory trip to the infield care center at Turns 1 and 2, where he was subsequently released. On Lap 50, the tow truck arrived with the heavily damaged #27. The crew removed the car’s flat right-front tire, revealing a brake rotor that now shattered into three pieces, leaving roughly one-third of the rotor still attached to the hub.
Incredibly, the only other retiree from Saturday’s race was Ryan Sieg, who after finishing 10th in Stage 2 was still in the Top 10 on Lap 151 when a bump from Eckes entering Turn 3 sent him spinning rear-first into the outside wall. The massive hit destroyed the rear clip of Sieg’s Ford, and while the driver walked away disappointed, he did so without serious injury. Sieg’s car was towed the long way to the infield, apparently toward the parking lot in Turns 1 and 2, before it ended up behind the team’s hauler. The crew was still removing bodywork well after the checkered flag, with one crewman standing atop the bent rear clip, which now pointed downward at a ninety-degree angle.
Cram, Emerling, and Reen completed the Bottom Five, showing nine, eight, and four laps down, respectively.
LASTCAR CHAMPIONSHIP
With Burton’s last-place finish, Parker Retzlaff locked-up the 2025 LASTCAR XFINITY Series Championship with just two last-place finishes as Jeb Burton wasn’t one of the five entered contenders who could have taken the title with a last-place finish in the race. Retzlaff finished 27th while contenders Justin Bonsignore finished 10th (again in relief of William Sawalich, who was himself in LASTCAR contention), Christian Eckes 16th, Anthony Alfredo 23rd, and Daniel Dye’s backup car in 28th.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #27 in a XFINITY Series race at Phoenix since February 26, 2011, when Justin Marks’ #27 Baker Curb Racing Ford had brake issues after 7 laps.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #27-Jeb Burton / 36 laps / crash
37) #41-Ryan Sieg / 150 laps / crash
36) #74-Dawson Cram / 191 laps / running
35) #07-Patrick Emerling / 192 laps / running
34) #5-Glen Reen / 196 laps / running
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) Kaulig Racing (5)
2nd) Joe Gibbs Racing, SS-Green Light Racing (4)
3rd) Alpha Prime Racing (3)
4th) Cope Family Racing, Jordan Anderson Racing, JR Motorsports, Sam Hunt Racing (2)
5th) DGM Racing x JIM, Haas Factory Team, Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen, Mike Harmon Racing, Our Motorsports, Pardus Racing, Richard Childress Racing, RSS Racing, Young’s Motorsports (1)
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) Chevrolet (25)
2nd) Toyota (6)
3rd) Ford (2)
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
