By Dustin Albino, For NASCAR.Com
Jeb Burton has never lacked confidence. Since bursting onto the NASCAR scene more than a decade ago, he’s always felt he could get the job done.
“I probably get more frustrated than anybody because I know that I can win at any of these tracks if my car will allow me to do it,” Burton told NASCAR.com last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “Sometimes, it’s tough to know that we’re not there yet.”
No matter the series, hurdles kept creeping up on Burton, jumping around between select Cup Series starts and additional stints in the Xfinity Series. Over the last three years, however, he’s found a stable home in Xfinity with Jordan Anderson Racing, which continues to grow.
“I think Jordan (Anderson, owner/driver) is very like-minded to me, and Jordan was looking for someone to build around,” Burton said. “Jordan and I have had our bad days, we’ve had our good days and there’s a mutual respect there. I feel like I need him, and he needs me. I need a place to race and he needs a place to have a stable driver and give them information and do a good job behind the wheel.”
Burton won early in his tenure with JAR, scoring an upset victory at Talladega Superspeedway in 2023. That vaulted the No. 27 team into the playoffs, finishing 12th in the championship standings. Almost nothing went right through the first two-thirds of the 2024 campaign, though, with the Virginia native accumulating an average finish of 21.6 for the year, the worst of his Xfinity career.
Anderson hired crew chief Mark Setzer — formerly with Jeremy Clements Racing — over the offseason to work with Burton; the company created a new competition director role for Shane Whitbeck, Burton’s former crew chief. The performance uptick has been clear.
Through the opening half of the 2025 regular season, Burton’s average finish is up more than seven positions compared to 2024, and he is 14 positions higher in the championship standings compared to this time last year. Burton currently sits ninth in the championship standings, nine points behind fifth.
Slotting in 10th on the playoff grid, Burton knows how tight the points are, sitting just 44 points ahead of 15th.
“The next [13 races] are important,” Burton said. “I’m thinking that if we can just do what we’re doing, not make any mistakes and not have any mechanical failures and not do anything dumb, we should be able to make the playoffs. I feel like our cars are getting better every week.”
Anderson believes the hot start to 2025, in which Burton has already tallied more top 10s this year (four) than all 33 races last season (three), has been constructed over time. The No. 27 team has built an extended notebook, knowing what the two-time Xfinity winner likes and dislikes in his setups. And while the team has yet to find Victory Lane this season — coming up just short at Talladega in April — the progress is still paying off.
“It’s been encouraging this year to see stuff that we were doing the last two or three years, it’s starting to show the results,” Anderson said. “It wasn’t just something that we hit on over the offseason, it’s been stuff that we’ve invested back into, trying to get better with.”
Burton admits that he looks at points weekly following each race. With a strong beginning to the 2025 season, the JAR haulers are parked in the garage among the series’ superpowers. (Teams are parked based on an organization’s highest driver in points.) Only Joe Gibbs Racing, Richard Childress Racing, JR Motorsports, Haas Factory Team and RSS Racing — with Ryan Sieg’s No. 39 car in an alliance with Haas — are parked ahead of the fifth-year upstart.
“We’re in really good company over here,” Anderson noted. “It’s a big mindset when they walk into the garage area to see our stuff on this side and know what we’re capable of.”
No matter the track, Burton is focused on stage points. Last month at Rockingham Speedway, he stayed out to earn points, despite the No. 27 team’s desire for him to pit. At Charlotte, he pitted for fresh tires during a caution in the middle of the opening stage and drove all the way to fifth to tally six points, making a 20th-place result much more bearable.
Eight of the final 13 races of the regular season — including Indianapolis on the superspeedway package — will be contested on either a superspeedway or road course, which could create chaos in the standings. Burton excels on superspeedways and considers himself a “decent” road-course driver, though the No. 27 team has needed to work on its program.
Burton remains calm and collected ahead of the series’ second half, which begins this Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“It really isn’t that stressful because we’re not supposed to do it anyways,” Burton said of possibly pointing his way into the playoffs. “We’re doing more than we should anyways. That’s the way I look at it. It would be big to do it, but I think now with everything that happened, it would be a bigger feat for us to make the playoffs without winning a race.”
Anderson, meanwhile, stated he’s always in a constant state of stress. However, if the No. 27 group can continue to refine the fundamentals, he believes Burton can make the 12-driver playoff.
“The reason we got here now with Jeb is the basics: finishing races, having good points days,” Anderson said. “If we continue to log good finishes, we’re going to ride that wave out and not put ourselves in a bad spot. A rising tide does raise all ships.”
Photo: NASCAR