Brandon Jones scored his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the 2022 season after some contact with his teammate Ty Gibbs on an overtime finish of Friday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville.
As Jones scooted away to the checkered flag, Gibbs got into a shoving match with Sam Mayer, which sent both drivers sliding back in the running order. As Gibbs and Mayer faded, Landon Cassill steered clear of the mayhem to finish second.
“What a day,” Jones said after climbing from his No. 19 car. “I can’t say that we could have played it out any better. I loved the call we made to get Stage Points. Drove the thing all the way from the back to the front. Had older tires than all of those guys at the end.”
For Jones, beating Gibbs to score his fifth-career NASCAR Xfinity Series win and collecting a grandfather clock was the icing on the cake.
“Fun to beat him. He’s hot right now, he’s tough to beat, so, that’s a good one,” Jones explained.
Cassill’s Kaulig Racing teammate AJ Allmendinger finished third. With his third-place finish, Allmendinger secured the $100,000 Dash4Cash bonus.
“I’m happy with the money, but that was a struggle,” Allmendinger stated. “All the men and women at Kaulig Racing — to get this $100,000 — first of all, thank you to Xfinity and Comcast for doing this, all the programs they do along with this Dash4Cash. Really big deal, get the men and women at Kaulig Racing some hard earned money…”
Rookie contender Austin Hill, who won the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway, came home in fourth.
Mayer would come to the finish line in fifth. Gibbs would finish eighth. After they crossed the finish line, Gibbs plowed into Mayer’s No. 1 car a couple of times to show his displeasure. When the two got out of their cars, a fist fight broke out. Mayer, who was helmetless, taunted Gibbs to take his helmet off. Gibbs, then, went swinging on Mayer, as he connected his fist with Mayer’s face a few times.
Riley Herbst finished the race in sixth, Ryan Truex was seventh, while Ryan Sieg and Jeremy Clements finished ninth and 10th.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., in his once-a-year Xfinity Series start, finished 11th. Earnhardt was involved in an incident with his JR Motorsports protégé Josh Berry, which cut Berry’s tire and sent him in the wall. Then, Earnhardt spun himself later in the race, which actually put him in a position to avoid a 16-car melee, which set up the second overtime finish.
One Response
Cheaters are going to win sooner or later. Why is it okay that his crew chief told him on live television to “wreck” the driver in first so he could take the win? )Then laughed like an imbecile realizing he was on live television.) That’s the only way he can win is by cheating. Poor sportsmanship. The fans don’t like him and now we don’t like his crew chief.