Burton trying to turn luck around

In roughly six months time, Jeb Burton has gone from being truck-less to the cusp of the top-10 point standings in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

While the 21-year-old driver certainly would like to be higher in the standings — he finished fifth last season as a rookie — Burton knows he’s in a much better position now than he was last winter.

Burton enters Friday’s American Ethonal 200 at Iowa Speedway 11th in the NCWTS point standings. He’ll take his No. 13 Estes Toyota Tundra around the 7/8 mile oval here in Newton without having to worry about sponsorship, a luxury he hasn’t enjoyed all season.

The Halifax, Va., native gained a full-time sponsor, Estes Express Lines, in late May after running on a race-by-race basis earlier this season with ThorSport Racing.

That came after he lost 2013 sponsor, Arrowhead, which prevented Turner Scott Motorsports from enlisting him full-time for his second year on the NCWTS.

The sponsorship pitfall became official at the end of January, but Burton said it was “right after Christmas when kind of all hell broke loose.”

When asked if he ever worried he wouldn’t be racing this year, Burton said, “Oh, yeah. I didn’t know what was going to happen. It’s all about finding sponsorship, and I didn’t have it.”

“It just was a nightmare for me and my family,” said Burton, who won a NCWTS-best seven poles last season. “To have all that you need sitting there to go win a championship and then you don’t have it — it wasn’t a whole lot of fun. But Mr. and Mrs. Thorson (owners of ThorSport Racing) called and gave me a chance, and I’m trying to make the best of it now and hopefully our performances will pick up.”

Burton is now totally focused on turning strong runs into solid finishes on race day, something luck hasn’t always allowed him the fortune of this season.

Burton didn’t finish the UNOH 225 at Kentucky June 26 after running in the top five through the first third of the race. He placed 18th at the Drivin’ for Lineman 200 June 14 after laps inside the top 10.

He was in fourth at Charlotte on May 16 in the closing laps before contact with another truck sent him to the infield grass and a 15th-place finish.

“It’s really frustrating to run there and then make a mistake,” he said. “Just got to keep going on with it and keeping getting better and learn.”

Burton experiened similar circumstances in his first race at Iowa Speedway last season. He was running in the top five until a wreck slowed him to a 26th-place finish.

“I think Iowa is a good track for me,” he said. “We’ve got one decent finish and then the other one didn’t reflect on how we were running. I think at Iowa, we should be able to come here and run in the top five.”