In a statement win for Brandon Jones and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team, the native of Atlanta, GA, held off Connor Zilisch and, in doing so, took his second win of the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway. With the win, Jones is on to the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs.
Race Results: Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas
And with how he and his No. 20 team perfomed on Saturday, he has confidence in his chances for the championship going forward.
“I feel like with this momentum we have here this weekend, really peaking at the right time with these race cars is crucial. So, I’m excited for [Las Vegas],” Jones explained. “We’ll go to the Roval, have some fun with it. Road racing has been a lot more fun recently, I’ve been working on that craft a bunch.”
Jones, who led 54 laps on the day, took the lead for the final time on Lap 163. He wouldn’t look back over the final 38 circuits around the 1.5-mile speedway as he crossed the finish line ahead of Zilisch, a nine-time race winner this year, by a margin of 2.787 seconds.
This is the seventh win of Jones’ NASCAR Xfinity Series career, and it comes in his 330th start. The driver was nearly flawless throughout the day as he started from the pole, finished runner-up in Stages 1 and 2, and turned the Xfinity Fastest Lap on his path to the win.
“Yeah, man, that was exactly how we needed that to go down. Those huge two second-place Stages, first would have been nicer, but I’m not going to get greedy with that. Two really solid Stages, and I mean, just no mistakes. The entire day was so well-executed. That’s probably by far in my career, my most well-executed race to date,” Jones stated in victory lane.
While Zilisch came up short of his 10th win of his NASCAR Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year campaign, the 19-year-old was able to secure a runner-up finish, which was enough to lock his position in the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs by way of points.
The runner-up finish on Saturday also marks Zilisch’s 16th consecutive top-five finish, which is a new all-time NASCAR Xfinity Series record. Zilisch passed Sam Ard’s former all-time record, which was set between a 15-race stretch over the 1983 and 1984 seasons.
Austin Hill, who is looking to claw his way back through the Playoff Grid after losing all of his Playoff Points due to a suspension for an over-agressive move at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, came home with a third-place result.
Sammy Smith, Sheldon Creed, Taylor Gray, Jesse Love, and Nick Sanchez capped off a top-eight sweep for NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff contenders.
Making his second career NASCAR Xfinity Series start, Brenden “Butterbean” Queen impressed mightily by notching a ninth-place finish behind the wheel of the No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, and he was followed across the line by Rookie of the Year contender Dean Thompson, who finished 10th in the No. 26 Sam Hunt Racing entry.
NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff Picture
In addition to Jones and Zilisch, Justin Allgaier, who led a race-high 79 laps, was the third driver to lock his slot into the Round of 8 Playoff field on Saturday afternoon as he won Stages 1 and 2, which allowed him to bank an important 20 Stage Points. However, a strategy call to leave a fresh set of tires in the pits for a late-race caution never paid off, and he ended the race with a 13th-place finish. But he still scored enough points on the day to lock into the next round of the Playoffs.
“No disappointment in the call, just the way that it played out,” Allgaier said after the race. “I mean, [crew chief] Jim [Pohlman] has been amazing on calls. And they work for you sometimes, and they don’t some other times, and today was one of those days. Just disappointed, our BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet was really good.”
Sam Mayer sits fourth in the Playoff Grid after Kansas, and he is 43 points above the cutline, while Taylor Gray (+16 points), Sheldon Creed (+12), Carson Kvapil (+9), and Jesse Love (+5) all exited the race with their heads above water in the championship fight.
Nick Sanchez (-5 points), Austin Hill (-7), Harrison Burton (-8), and Sammy Smith (-14) all need to make up ground next weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, the final race in the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs.
Next Up: The Roval
Next up for the NASCAR Xfinity Series is the Blue Cross NC 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval on Saturday, October 4. That race will be televised on The CW, and the live race broadcast is set to kick off at 5:00 PM ET. The Performance Radio Network (PRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of that race.
