Coming off an up-and-down weekend at Pocono Raceway, Brandon Jones will reach a milestone start in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. When he takes the green flag for the Pennzoil 150 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval-road course layout, Jones will reach 150 career starts in the Xfinity Series.
A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Jones made his Xfinity debut at Iowa Speedway in May 2015. Driving the No. 33 Jeld-Wen/Menards Chevrolet Camaro for Richard Childress Racing, Jones finished eighth. He would compete in four more races in the series for RCR, earning his first top-five career finish at Kentucky Speedway in September and averaging a finishing result of 15th. The following season, Jones was promoted to a full-time racing schedule in RCR’s No. 33 Chevrolet in the Xfinity Series. He opened his first full-time season with a seventh-place result at Daytona International Speedway and went on to earn 11 more top-10 results while making the inaugural Xfinity Playoffs. He was eliminated, however, following the first round and finished 10th in the final standings. Despite starting the 2017 season with his first career pole for the season-opening event at Daytona, the remainder of the season was a disappointing one for Jones as he only achieved three top-10 results, missed the Playoffs and concluded the season in 16th in the final standings.
In 2018, Jones transitioned to Joe Gibbs Racing to drive the No. 19 Toyota with Menards maintaining their partnership with the driver as one of his primary sponsors throughout the season. Through the first nine Xfinity races, Jones earned five top-10 results. Among his highlights for the start of the 2018 season included winning a stage at Texas Motor Speedway, leading a race-high 106 laps before finishing sixth at Bristol Motor Speedway the following week and finishing a career-best second at Talladega two weeks later, all in April. He would earn 12 more top-10 results, record a pole at Dover International Speedway in May and finish ninth in the final standings while making the Playoffs.
He remained at JGR for the 2019 Xfinity Series while being paired with crew chief Jeff Meendering. He started the season with a third-place run at Daytona followed by a fourth-place run at Atlanta Motor Speedway before finishing 28th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway the following week due to a late accident. For the first 29 Xfinity races, Jones earned 13 top-10 results, which was enough for him to qualify for the Xfinity Playoffs for the third time in his career despite sustaining seven DNFs. After recording finishes of 11th, 16th and 37th in the first round of the Playoffs, Jones was eliminated from title contention. The following week at Kansas Speedway, however, Jones rebounded by taking the lead with 10 laps remaining and holding off the field on a two-lap shootout to grab his first Xfinity career win in his 133rd series start, which was also his first victory across NASCAR’s three major division series. He would finish in the top 11 for the remaining three races and settle in 10th in the final standings.
This season, in his third with JGR, Jones has finished in the top 10 seven times and is ranked eighth in the regular-season series standings through the first 12 races. He recorded his second Xfinity Series career win at Phoenix Raceway in March, which was also the 500th win for Toyota across NASCAR’s three major division series, after passing Kyle Busch in the closing laps for the lead, a victory that has him guaranteed a spot for the 2020 Playoffs. He has also made one of select NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series starts in the No. 51 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports last weekend at Pocono Raceway, which he won and recorded his first Truck win in his 46th series start.
Like his fellow Xfinity Series competitors, this weekend’s event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will mark Jones’ first start at the famed racetrack’s oval-road course layout. He has competed at Indy’s oval-shaped layout the previous four seasons, finishing in the top 10 in all of them with a best result of sixth in 2019.
Catch Jones’ milestone start in the Pennzoil 150 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval-road course event on July 4 at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.
