Jones Comes Out On Top In A Dash At Dover

Erik Jones ended Saturday in victory lane as he won his second NASCAR XFINITY Series race of the season in the Ollie’s Bargain Outlet 200 at Dover International Speedway.

This was Jones’ fourth career XFINITY Series victory, and it came after some drama. With just 10 laps to go, Brendan Gaughan spun out in turn two which brought out the caution. Of the 11 cars still on the lead lap, five stayed out including Jones while six pitted for tires. This set up a dramatic five lap run where the six cars with fresh tires tried to race their way back up to the front of the field. In the end it didn’t matter up front as Jones was able to hold off Darrell Wallace Jr. and Alex Bowman.

This was also the third XFINITY Series “Dash 4 Cash” race, after Bristol and Richmond last month. The 200 lap race was split into two 40 lap heats and a 120 lap main event. The heat races determined the starting order of the main event and each heat race determined the four “Dash 4 Cash” drivers, who may only be XFINITY Series regulars. The highest finishing of these four in the main event win $100,000. If a driver wins two “Dash 4 Cash” events in a season, it would officially count as a race victory when it comes to Chase contention.

Justin Allgaier won the first heat race after a great back and forth duel with Jones in the final 10 laps. Allgaier and Jones were the two “Dash 4 Cash” drivers from this race. The second heat race was the most newsworthy yet of any of the six “Dash 4 Cash” heat races so far. This race began with Elliott Sadler jumping the start and beating the leader to the start-finish line. Sadler was black-flagged again after speeding on his subsequent pass-through penalty and ended the heat three laps down. Sadler later rallied back from a 32nd start in the main and finished sixth.

With just a handful of laps remaining in the heat, Justin Marks became the cause of the first, and so far only, heat caution when his No. 42 Chevrolet spun out and hit the wall on the front stretch. Marks was released from the infield car center a little later. Ty Dillon was able to get around leader Daniel Suarez on the restart to win the heat, and both Dillon and Suarez were the two “Dash 4 Cash” drivers in this race.

In the end, Jones was able to win the race and win the “Dash 4 Cash” for the second time this season.

“We struggled there on the long runs and we had something going on there internally that made us not so great on the long run, but we were able to hold on because we were better than most of the rest of the field,” Jones said post race. “It ended up coming down to the short run and I knew we were in a pretty good spot on the restart and we were able to hold on from there for five more laps and get to victory lane.”

Darrell “Bubba” Wallace’s second place finish was the highest finish for an African-American driver in NASCAR XFINITY Series history. But it did not come easy for the young Roush Fenway Racing driver as he had to do it in a back-up car after damaging his primary car in a wreck during Friday’s opening practice.

Meanwhile Alex Bowman, in third place, had spent most of the race either leading or running second to Jones before pitting on the final caution. It was pretty impressive for a driver who hasn’t been in a stock car in seven months before this weekend. Bowman hopes to land another ride soon, but if not, his next race will be at Pocono in a few weeks, once again in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.

Full Results:
1^st Erik Jones
2^nd Darrell Wallace Jr.
3^rd Alex Bowman
4^th Justin Allgaier
5^th Ty Dillon
6^th Elliott Sadler
7^th Joey Logano
8^th Matt Tifft
9^th Daniel Suarez
10^th Brennan Poole
11^th J.J. Yeley
12^th Blake Koch
13^th Jeb Burton
14^th Drew Herring
15^th Brendan Gaughan
16^th Ryan Sieg
17^th Ray Black Jr.
18^th Ryan Reed
19^th BJ McLeod
20^th Ross Chastain
21^st Dakoda Armstrong
22^nd Jeremy Clements
23^rd Joey Gase
24^th Garrett Smithley
25^th Brandon Jones
26^th Timmy Hill
27^th Alex Guenette
28^th Mario Gosselin
29^th Paul Menard
30^th Travis Kvapil
31^st Ryan Ellis
32^nd Mike Harmon
33^rd Jeff Green
34^th Carl Long
35^th Derrike Cope
36^th Morgan Shepherd
37^th Josh Reaume
38^th Matt DiBenedetto
39^th Ryan Preece
40^th Justin Marks

Chase Grid for the NASCAR XFINITY Series:

Erik Jones (3* wins)- Locked in as long as he stays above 30^th in points and attempts every race until Richmond

Elliott Sadler (1 win)

*: Jones has won two “Dash 4 Cash” races, thus he technically has a bonus win on the Chase grid.