Toyota Racing – Brandon Jones
NASCAR Xfinity Series Quotes
BRISTOL, Tennessee (May 29, 2020) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Brandon Jones was made available to media via videoconference prior to the Cheddar’s 300 this Monday:
BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Menards/PELONIS Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
How excited are you to get to Bristol and the first race for Dash for Cash?
“I’m excited to get to Bristol. We’ve had speed to win these races. Can’t be a better way to go to Bristol. The Dash for Cash is always fun. I’ve had limited opportunities to be a part of that, so I feel like my chances this year are super strong to get eligible for that. Bristol has always been one of my favorite race tracks. I’ve almost won there a few times in Xfinity and Trucks, as well. I’m looking forward to try to get that checked off my list.”
Talk about rolling off at Bristol. What makes it difficult? How will the race be any different than previous races at Bristol?
“These have been intense race tracks for no practice and no qualifying. They are testing the drivers pretty good. I’ve been to Bristol a bunch. I’ve been racing there since K&N days, so I was 15-16 years old. So, I’ve been to Bristol a bunch. I know my marks. We are fortunate to be able to use the TRD Simulator currently on a limited schedule, so that’s been helping a bunch to keep yourself in the swing of things and keep going. But Bristol is a handful. Every time, I come off of Bristol on a normal week with practice, I’m out of breath. It only takes five laps; you forget to breathe. It’s so small. It’s got so much load, so much G-force for a little track that it will surprise you quick. That’s going to be one thing that I have to keep in my mind – make sure we are using our breathing and make sure everything is good there. I will be out of breath for five laps till we get calmed down and get going again.”
What do you think about the Busch brothers calling the race for TV?
“That will be fun. It will be really good. It’s going to be something that is very different. I’m starting to get closer to Kyle there a little bit. We’ve been talking a lot back-and-forth during this time just with no practice, no qualifying. I’m trying to get a little more information from him than I normally would for a race weekend on how he approaches some things, so that’s been kind of fun being able to do that. It’s really helped our game up with limited time.”
With Atlanta coming up next week, does that track have a special place for you?
“Yeah, going back to Atlanta is awesome. Normally, you have a lot of family coming, a lot of friends. So, it will be a little bit different this time around going to the racetrack, but I always enjoy coming back home. I hope to maybe be able to spend some time once we get down there, later in the week. Atlanta is good. I ran, I think, fourth, at Atlanta. That was with limited resources compared to what I know now. I think I know twice as much as I knew from that race last year. That shows pretty good. Shows that we are going to be good in the race. That track is super worn out. We’ve been doing really good at these worn out race tracks. We ran great at Auto Club (Speedway, February). That place is really worn out. Darlington (Raceway, May) we had a decent run. I feel like all of those tracks – we are starting to get the hang of that. Starting to figure out how to really study those tracks well, and that’s going to play pretty big into our race.”
Atlanta was the place that everything kind of stopped on that Friday. Can you tell me your story – were you at the track when you started hearing things?
“I was actually getting coffee. We had landed early. Those guys had tech, I think. I had some dead time there, so I was just going to grab some coffee and then head to the racetrack, not get too in a hurry. I get halfway there, and I get a call from Meendering (Jeff Meendering), my crew chief saying ‘Hopefully, you didn’t get too far. Turn around. They are thinking about maybe having to go back home.’ Then everything kind of started shutting down and spiraling from there. It was definitely interesting. I was already unsure about it – going into the weekend. It was just a weird feeling, for me for some reason. I guess I wasn’t surprised at the end, but luckily, I didn’t get all the way to the racetrack.”
You brought up Jeff (Meendering, crew chief). This is the first season you have had the same crew chief two seasons in a row. Curious, how is he different from other crew chiefs you have had in the past?
“Jeff is great. I feel, the whole team that I have right now, we’ve been together a couple years now and we’ve started to become that family that you really need to be able to compete at a high level. I feel like that’s really what it takes to win races and compete well on a daily basis or weekend basis – make sure you guys are on the same page and making sure you guys are one unit and kind of a family outside of the race track. So I kind of have that connection with Jeff. He’s super laid back on the radio. He doesn’t get anybody over excited, which is great. I don’t think you want somebody that’s going to get mad at a bad pit stop or something that went wrong. You just have to go to the next thing and keep fighting to the end and then we can talk about it after the race. I think he does a real good job at that. That’s one thing that I’ve really enjoyed about this team. We all stick together. If we need to fix something, we talk about it after the race, but during the race is not the time to discuss it.”
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