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Brian Wilson named crew chief for 2022 Cup rookie Harrison Burton

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Take a behind the scenes look of Kyle Larson's historic NASCAR Cup Series Championship celebration.

Wood Brothers Racing announced Thursday that Brian Wilson will join the organization as crew chief for Harrison Burton in his rookie NASCAR Cup Series campaign next season.

Wilson recently completed his 18th season with Team Penske, which holds a technical alliance with Wood Brothers Racing.

One year after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship with driver Austin Cindric, they returned to the Xfinity Championship 4, where they narrowly finished runner-up to Daniel Hemric.

Like Burton, Cindric is moving up to Cup next season as driver of Penske’s No. 2 entry.

Along with his crew chief exploits, Wilson contributed to Brad Keselowski’s 2010 Xfinity and 2012 Cup titles as a Penske engineer. He first joined the Penske organization in 2004.

In 2022, he’ll pair with Burton, who comes off a two-year run as driver of Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Xfinity entry.

After a four-win season in 2020, Burton went winless in 2021. However, he still reached the Xfinity playoff Round of 8 before being eliminated in the final cut race at Martinsville Speedway.

Burton made his first Cup start this season in the April race at Talladega Superspeedway. He finished 20th for Gaunt Brothers Racing.

Together, Wilson and Burton will seek to give Wood Brothers Racing their 100th win in Cup Series competition.

The organization has been stuck on 99 Cup victories since Ryan Blaney’s triumph at Pocono in June 2017. Its most recent driver, Matt DiBenedetto, failed to win in two seasons driving the No. 21 entry.

“I don’t think I can put that into words,” Wilson told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Thursday about perhaps claiming the Wood Brothers’ elusive 100th win. “I mean, that would be a huge moment for me, personally. It would be huge for Harrison. It would be huge for our whole team, for the Wood Brothers, for Ford.

“I think it’d be very hard to put it into words but obviously, it would be probably the best moment in my career. So, I can’t wait to try and make that happen.”