Brandon Jones suffered the lowest of lows last weekend, as he blew a motor, crashed, and finished 37th in the 38-car field at Richmond Raceway. This weekend at Martinsville, things have started off on the highest of highs for the driver of the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro.
Jones tied the Martinsville Speedway NASCAR Xfinity Series track record with a lap time of 19.694 sec. (96.151 mph) to score his first pole of the 2024 season. Jones’ lap was 0.063 sec. faster than the lap turned by Cole Custer, who will start on the outside of the front row in the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang.
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The 27-year-old racer is elated to have this much speed at a track, where he has shown the ability to win in the past.
“Absolutely, man. Hats off to these guys. Such a good start. This is my place man,” Jones said. I love this race track. It’s a good rebound from last weekend at Richmond. It was a strong beginning, started second there and then had a motor failure. You know, it’s redemption, man. I want to try to get back on top here. Looking forward to getting going tomorrow evening.”
While Jones picked up his ninth-career NASCAR Xfinity Series pole, there was a little bit of drama for Jones as his No. 9 JR Motorsports team. They found a hairline crack in his brake rotor following his qualifying run. The team will have to change the rotor before Saturday’s race, which means Jones will have to drop to the rear before the green flag.
“I guess we’ll go to the back if we have to,” Jones explained.
In his post-qualifying press conference, Jones said the goal for the early portion of the 250-lap contest is to simply stay on the lead lap and work his way to the front.
Sheldon Creed, who was frustrated by a mechanical issue at Richmond, will start from the third position on Saturday evening and he’ll be joined by Jordan Anderson Racing’s Jeb Burton in Row 2.
Justin Allgaier, Aric Almirola, Anthony Alfredo, Ryan Sieg, Sam Mayer, and Austin Hill will round out the top-10 starters in Saturday’s DUDE Wipes 250 at Martinsville Speedway.
Chandler Smith, who won last weekend’s event at Richmond Raceway, and was expected to be among the favorites in the field this weekend, will start from the 37th position. Smith skidded into the outside wall in Turn 1 of his opening lap of practice earlier in the afternoon. Smith said that cold brakes contributed to the incident, which crumpled the right front fender on his Toyota GR Supra.
Ryan Vargas, who was driving the No. 74 Mike Harmon Racing Chevrolet Camaro, was the lone driver that failed to make it into Saturday’s field.
Qualifying Results: NXS DUDE Wipes 250 at Martinsville Speedway
