FONTANA, Cali. — Magic was certainly in the air on February 29th as 19-year-old, Harrison Burton, captured his first victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Auto Club Speedway. This was the first time a driver of the same namesake and heritage won a race at the sport’s second division, when his father Jeff celebrated in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2007.

Burton was able to hold off his hard charging Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Riley Herbst, and lead 40 laps en route to his first NASCAR-sanctioned win in three years. But what makes this victory so special?

For those who don’t know, February 29th is also known as Leap Day and it only comes once every four years. There have only been two races run in the Xfinity Series on the unique date and it just so happens that another Burton accomplished the feat 28 years ago – Ward Burton.

Even more bizarre, both victories were the first of each driver’s career in NASCAR’s second-tier division.

“The stars aligned I guess,” Burton told POPULAR SPEED. “That feels really good to win and to follow in Ward’s footsteps a bit.”

Don’t let the date fool you, this was not solely Leap Day luck. Burton notched this victory in just his 12th overall career start in the Xfinity Series. Expanded upon that, the North Carolina-native has not finished below fifth in the three races completed this season.

This was a much needed win for the young Toyota Racing Development driver. After a disappointing full-time run in NASCAR Gander RV and Outdoors Truck Series last season, many people expressed their doubts about Burton and his ability to compete at the sport’s higher levels.

“My team and my company always believed in me,” the 19-year-old revealed. “I used them as motivation.If you use it right, it’s super powerful and it can motivate you to be better. That’s what my whole team around me has been preaching, because they knew I was coming off of a rough year and they knew we could do it as a team.”

Analyzing the bigger picture, the biggest question mark heading into 2020 for the Xfinity Series was what young athletes would step up to become the next “Big Three.”

“There’s no reason our ‘Big Three’ can’t be with our guys,” Burton stated. The racing prodigy revealed that in a team meeting early in the year, himself along with Herbst and Brandon Jones took an in-depth look at the competition and felt confident. “We believe we have the best crew chiefs, we believe we have the best cars and I truly believe that we have the opportunity to do something really special this year as an organization.”

Although only three races into this young season, it’s not out of the realm of possibility for this to take place. Burton leads the Toyota racing team with three top-five and one win. Both Herbst and Jones have one top-five and two top-10s each and ran competitively in the opposing event with a chance at a quality finish, but unforeseen circumstances derailed their days.

The main factor in question for this team is can they maintain this success throughout. This is a youthful organization and Jones leads the brigade at age 23. While there may not be a veteran driver to lean on for advice, the crew and equipment are well established and should aid in the on-track productivity for the athletes.

Burton and the Gibbs gang will look to carry their momentum to the LS Tractor 200 at Phoenix Raceway. This will be an incredibly important race for every driver in the field, as this will be the sight of the 2020 Championship.