A mechanical failure on the No. 9 sends @BrandonJonesRac spinning into the wall. pic.twitter.com/9R9aYxUIxS
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) March 30, 2024
That’ll do it for Brandon Jones, and the No. 9 JR Motorsports team. Jones, who had three top-10 finishes heading into the weekend and sat ninth in the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship standings, will take a hit after Saturday’s Toyota Care 250 at Richmond Raceway.
On Lap 43, Jones suffered an engine failure, and as his car began to shoot fluid onto the track, Jones spun in his own fluid and backed into the outside wall. Behind him, Ryan Sieg also slid in the fluid and went for a spin as well.
While Jones is done for the day, Sieg was able to keep on rolling and will continue on in the race.
It was a disappointing end for Jones, who felt like he had a car capable of winning Saturday at Richmond.
Brandon Jones to @MRNRadio explaining the indident that ended his day: pic.twitter.com/aepAgj6LYx
— Taylor Kitchen (@_TaylorKitchen_) March 30, 2024
“I really, really felt strong about the day, man,” Jones explained. “I had a great gameplan to try to take the lead early on and got really loose at the start of the race. I was kind of surprised by that. But the track was pretty dirty, so I just settled in. I was running really good lap times comparable to the guys in front of us. I was waiting until the pit stop to get an adjustment. And going into Turn 1, like the whole drivetrain started to shake really bad. Like what you’d heard from Top Fuel guys talk about belts starting to shred really hard. You feel that shake, and then I just spun.”
Jones will end the day in 37th, ahead of only Ryan Vargas, who dropped out of the race on Lap 19 with a mechanical issue.
