Brandon Jones has more than likely heard the criticism about him online. He drives for the most dominant Xfinity Series team of the last decade — Joe Gibbs Racing — yet entering Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 he had yet to win a race in NXS competition.
That all changed on an afternoon where the dominant cars kept finding trouble around every turn. Jones stayed clean, and was right where he needed to be to capitalize for his first-career win in the closing laps.
Jones’ first win comes in career start No. 134, one race after he was eliminated from the Playoffs in Dover.
Tyler Reddick ended up finishing second, but following the race he got into a confrontation with Stage 2 winner Cole Custer.
“Yeah, I was just frustrated that he can’t keep his car on the bottom and then he runs up into us in the wall,” Custer said after the race. “If he wants to wreck cars and put them into the wall from time to time, that’s fine. But when it affects me, I’m not going to be happy about it.”
Chase Briscoe, who was collected by Christopher Bell and Garrett Smithley in an incident with 17 laps left, rebounded to finish third.
Michael Annett finished fourth and Justin Allgaier brought home a top-five in fifth.
Jeremy Clements, Justin Haley, John Hunter Nemechek, Ryan Sieg and Ross Chastain rounded out the top-10.
Custer, who led the most laps on the day, finished 11th after turning sideways with 49 laps to go while inside the top-two and then having contact with Reddick late.
Bell, who was the other half of the Briscoe incident with 17 laps to go, wound up 12th. Bell was the Stage 1 winner.
Post-Race Stat Pack:
