Wood Brothers Racing, once a legendary name in NASCAR circles, is seeking a comeback. Their glittering lineage dates back to 1950 and holds a trail of 99 Cup victories. But in a quest to reignite their old flame, the team is at the sacrificial altar. Now, with the recent update on their three-year contract with its only Cup driver, Harrison Burton, the situation looks even bleak.

It is very well known that the North Carolina native has not seen the sparkle of a trophy in a long time. On-track brush-ups with rivals have exacerbated Harrison Burton’s situation. In this scenario, a controversial social media action recently leaked online, rubbing salt on his wounds. Yet fans chose to take his side.

Harrison Burton is in deep waters

Just like Hailie Deegan is riling in misery in the Xfinity Series, Harrison Burton is in a similar soup. With only one top-ten finish at Talladega snuggling with 20th or worse finishes, the No. 21 driver is in a dilemma. Coupling his faltering performance with rowdy bullying from colleagues. Carson Hocevar hit Burton during a caution period and sent him sideways at Nashville. Although Hocevar got slapped with a heavy fine, the mental toll it took on Burton cannot be discounted.

Then Wood Brothers Racing, a permanent fixture in Harrison Burton’s life for the past few years, doled out a heartbreaking announcement that Stewart-Haas Racing’s Josh Berry is all set to take over the No. 21 ride for 2025, leaving Burton in the shadows.

Team President Jon Wood declared in a stinging message to Burton, “We need to be better. There’s no secret. This is a business that’s based on chemistry, and it’s a sport that’s based on results, and right now, we’re just not having those results. You know, Harrison shares some responsibility. If it’s on us — we’re not pointing fingers.”

The 2017 ARCA East title winner had a charming start to his career. Burton won four Xfinity races in 2020 before moving over to the Cup Series. However, it seems like the 24-year-old is not cut out for a Cup career. Hence, he accepted his fate with a hung head.

Burton’s comment after the big revelation: “Obviously never good news and never news you want to hear as a race car driver. But at the end of the day, that’s the way this business works and we need to put that behind us and we still have a great opportunity to go try and get the Wood Brothers their 100th win this season.”

Amidst this miserable career slump, Harrison Burton now has fresh trouble around the corner. A NASCAR fan dug up a certain activity from social media—apparently, Burton liked an insensitive 9/11 meme on Instagram about the horrific 9/11 incident. However, no evidence stands, as the fan post has been deleted. And other NASCAR fans hounded the person for making Burton’s life worse.

What side are the fans on?

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NASCAR drivers have been penalized for insensitive actions earlier. For instance, Kyle Larson‘s racial slur in an iRacing event during COVID-19 earned him a massive penalty; Chip Ganassi and his major sponsors abandoned him. Then Noah Gragson liked a problematic post about George Floyd’s death last year, which earned him a hefty punishment as well.

Harrison Burton may be headed to a similar fate, but that is hardly the first of his troubles. Hence, one fan sided with the driver’s miserable state, as he wrote, “Why are we trying to get Harrison Burton cancelled? Hasn’t the poor boy suffered enough?” 

Another fan empathized with Burton’s dire situation, calling out the detractor and stating how it is important to me to be empathetic, especially in these tough times for Burton, where on the one hand Hocevar ruined his good run and on the other WBR has hired his replacement. The user wrote, “People love kicking others while they are down, harrisons having a bad season, lost his ride an now some people have the urge to go out of their way to pile on even more. Their lives probably suck so much they just wanna see someone else suffer.”

Others considered this a step too far. The concerned personality must have gone into the depths of social media to root out something to bring down Harrison Burton. One fan knowingly asked: “Really are scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for controversy huh?” Another fan took a shot at Burton’s hater, indicating their jobless nature, “lol people who hunt this stuff and repost it are worthless.”

The entire conversation took place on Reddit, and some NASCAR fans blamed the platform for this issue. One fan called out regular Reddit users for deliberately causing havoc. “That’s Reddit’s motto, “We wake up and find things to be mad about!”

Evidently, fans are trying to ease Harrison Burton’s situation as much as possible. Now out of a ride for the next season, let us wait and see where the driver winds up. However, do you think Berry would help WBR make a come back?