287: The number of days between top-five finishes for Brandon Jones.
Dating back to Memorial Day Weekend last May, the 10-year veteran of the NASCAR Xfinity Series has been in quite a slump, one that he looked to kick with a move back to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2025.
Although the beginning of the new season didn’t go exactly as planned, with two finishes of 30th or worse in the opening three races of season, Phoenix Raceway, the site of his second career victory, was also the site of sweet redemption.
The driver of the No. 20 Menards Toyota GR Supra was pretty quick in practice, ranking seventh in single-lap speed, and qualified a slightly disappointing 16th, but by the end of the first stage had already worked his way into the top-10.
From there, Jones continued to sneak closer and closer to the front of the pack, and while he never took a turn leading the field, there were a couple of instances where the neon yellow Toyota was battling amongst the leaders.
In reality, there wasn’t a ton of extracurricular excitement for Jones, in terms of bad luck or mistakes that put the No. 20 Toyota GR Supra back in traffic at any point, which surely was a relief for the 28-year-old driver.
“It was a very well-executed day,” Jones said post-race. “The whole day, I approached the race very differently than I have been, and it was basically to win at all the little things. So, I just kept telling my mind, ‘I want to win a restart today. I want to pass a car on a restart,’ and once I do that, I’m like ‘Okay, let’s go get the next car.’ It wasn’t about the end goal of trying to win the race, it was about executing on pit road, executing on the next restart, execute the passes.”
Statistically speaking, with an average running position of 5.15, Jones had the best run in the NASCAR Xfinity Series since the Summer of 2023 at Pocono Raceway, where the then-JR Motorsports driver had an average running position of 5.09 and finished seventh.
After a pair of years where Jones was plagued by any bad luck imaginable, the result is a much-needed celebration for the 28-year-old driver, and puts him back into striking distance of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs — a place the born-again Joe Gibbs Racing driver hopes to return after missing it the last two season with JRM.
When the event moved into NASCAR Overtime, after a late-race spin by Nick Leitz, there was definitely a moment in time where Jones thought he could capture the victory, especially as Allgaier and Almriola washed up the racetrack in Turn 1.
“I had, what I thought was the opening to win the race, but, not sure if it was excitement and on old tires – probably a combination of all of it, but I asked a little too much [of the car] and couldn’t quite come off Turn 2 with enough momentum, But, I knew in the end, that was going to be the deal. If I could launch good, it was going to go one of two ways there either. Have old tires, you’ll spin the heck out of them, and you get put in a bad situation or you go forward.”
With Aric Almirola and Alex Bowman racing aggressively for the victory, Jones was within striking distance of the victory, and as things played out on the last lap, the No. 20 was in position to sneak through if things went awry. But, alas, they didn’t.
“[Almirola] and [Bowman] were racing hard, and I knew they were going to use each other up, so it was really close.”
“This was good momentum. We haven’t started off the year great and it’s just a good overall day. Everybody’s head was in the game, everybody showed up to win the race and we’re in a stretch of races that are good for my driving style and for this organization (Joe Gibbs Racing). Looking forward to what’s to come and hopefully, get my No. 20 Toyota GR Supra into victory lane.”
Jones leaves Phoenix Raceway sitting 20th in NASCAR Xfinity Series points, as the series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a racetrack that Joe Gibbs Racing has thrived on in recent years.
The next couple of weeks will be crucial for Jones, as he looks to assert that a jump-back to Joe Gibbs Racing was a good move, both for himself and for the organization.
