Toyota GAZOO Racing – Brandon Jones
NASCAR Xfinity Series Quotes
CHARLOTTE (September 9, 2025) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Brandon Jones was made available to the media on Tuesday as part of NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff Media Day.
BRANDON JONES, No. 20 Menards Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
What’s your attitude towards these Playoffs?
“That’s going to be the balance this year. I’ve done a good job, in my opinion, and it’s getting taken advantage of a little bit. But through the regular season, cutting guys breaks and just trying to make it to the end of some races sometimes, recognizing if I have a good enough car to go for it. If I don’t have a car to win, trying to just take my licks and try to finish races. But now that we’re here and now that I’ve made it again to the Playoffs, that has to change. It has to amp itself up some. And I’m not talking about driving beyond my limits and wrecking race cars and destroying people. That’s not how you win a championship. That’s not how you’re going to get there. But recognizing the days that, ‘okay, this car can win the race, like 100%, we’re going to go compete for it.’ Then those are the days that you can’t cut anybody any breaks. I mean, if you get a run on somebody and they choose to go down and block you, you can’t just hit the brake pedal at that point. They’ve made their bet to, ‘well, we know Brandon’s faster, but you know, I’m going to try to hold him back there,’ and rightfully so. They don’t want to lose a position. You can’t say, ‘oh, you’re right. I’m going to give it to you and not wreck you,’ because that doesn’t go into competitors minds as, ‘oh man, thank you so much for cutting a break.’ That turns into, ‘I can block him and he’s not going to wreck me.’ So, it has to ramp itself up in that aspect a little bit. On the flip side, the days that you think ‘maybe today I’m only fifth that best. I’m really struggling to get to fifth.’ Those are not the days that you go up there to the lead and start running into people and charging through people because those are going to be the times you start making enemies and you don’t want to rub somebody the wrong way. I don’t rub people the wrong way in the sport. If there’s anything, like I said, it’s the opposite, right? So, I must learn how to crank that up just a little bit. I’ve got to own the 10-year veteran mindset in the sport. And we’ve got speed to go win these races. I look at the Playoffs, five out of the seven, let’s just exclude Talladega and the (Charlotte) ROVAL because they’re wild cards. I can be leading those easily and get destroyed, out of spite. So, the ones that I feel like we can go have good days at, the Playoffs line up really well for me, the tracks that are in it.”
Do you need to change your mindset at any point?
“Morally, I have a hard time just running through people. There’s a lot of moves that these guys make that I look at and I’m like, ‘I wouldn’t feel good about it.’ I wouldn’t feel good about myself if I just ran through some people like they do, even (to) our car, right? I feel like you have to understand who you’re racing. That’s where the veterans do a great job. You know, if I get around Justin Allgaier and some of these guys that have been in here even longer than I have, those are not the ones that you that you run hard like that. Justin and I race really hard, but you can tell there’s a there’s a little bit of a respect level there of like, ‘okay, I’m not going to put you in a bad situation here, but I’m going to race you, you know, hard. I’m not just going to lay over and give you the spot.’ On the flip side, you have more rookie-based drivers that put you in really bad spots. They’ll put it on your door very hard in the mile-and-a-half. They’ll pack a ton of air on your left rear and those are the moves that (you say), ‘you realize that these are the moves that can basically end my day?’ Those are the times where I get frustrated a little bit of, ‘I don’t do that to you because I’m not going to put you in that situation. Why are you putting me in that spot as well?’ Like I’m a very give and receive kind of person. I just get frustrated if I give and don’t receive. I’ve got to just understand who I’m racing. I think I know the ones that I can be respectful around, but I also know the ones now going into the Playoffs, I’ve got a group of people that, ‘okay, I’ve seen this time and time again how this plays out. I remember that as we go through it.’ We can have that conversation after the race of, ‘hey, let’s roll the tapes. Let me show you why this happened.’ It’s not about being more, (pause) aggressive maybe is the right word, but it’s about not putting yourself in bad situations because you’re racing out of character. You can’t race out of character. You can’t start doing things that affect you morally or that you wouldn’t do naturally. It has to come naturally. Because if you start going into these weekends of, ‘why keep getting pushed around? And I’m sick of it and I’m going to be the one pushing people around,’ you’re in it for the wrong reasons. Thus, you’re not going to go very far. You’re going to start having bad results at the end of the day. So, I have to continue to do what I’m doing and just have fast cars. I mean, that’s what’s key. Keep maximizing the speed out of the race cars. But if you have a car to go win, own it. Sit up in the seat, put the shoulders back a little bit and be like, ‘I’m the one that’s going to win the race.’ If your crew is not telling you that the No. 20 car’s fast, then that’s on you guys. We’re coming, so you have to know how to manage that a little bit.”
What would winning a championship this year mean to you?
“Oh, man, I mean, insane! I think that’s always been the goal, a championship. But beyond that, it’s just really difficult in general to make it to Phoenix, and the final four. That would be the huge one – making it to Phoenix. Have to get to that final four. It just comes down to the one race. So, if you don’t win it, being in the final four, it’s gut punching, it stinks and it is what it is, right? But at the same time, I think that you did everything almost to a T correct to get to the final four. That would be the first goal, would be a huge one for me to make it there. I’ve been close a couple of times, we’ve all seen that, so I know how to do it. I know we can do it. It’s just a matter of getting these couple rounds having really good speed, building confidence when it matters. It’d be cool to get Menards a championship in Xfinity series.”
How much of an advantage is your experience in these Playoffs?
“Yeah, I think where the experience is going to get me farther than some of the other competitors is knowing how to manage the pressure, the stress and the races. I foresee lots of mistakes being made. I foresee a lot of guys being very fast and trying to get more than they really need to get. It comes down to constantly late race restarts in the Xfinity Series and desperation sets in very fast. I have this weird picture in my mind of a lot of people truthfully taking themselves out of contention. Hopefully, we can use the years that I’ve been in this and all the things I’ve learned to our advantage and try to put one nice push at it as we go through these next couple rounds.”
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