Brandon Jones capped off a roller coaster afternoon that resulted in him rallying from early brake issues that dropped him to the rear of the field to post a strong runner-up result in the BetMGM 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 25, despite falling short of the victory to Chase Elliott
The 27-year-old Jones from Atlanta, Georgia, commenced his run in NASCAR’s backyard at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 10th place. He would then methodically navigate his way into the top five as he was up into fifth place by the Lap 15. Running as high as fourth place during the proceeding laps, Jones lost two spots on pit road during the first caution period on Lap 32 but would make up the two spots on the track during the following restart period on Lap 36 as he would proceed to settle in fourth place when the first stage period concluded on Lap 45. By then, he had collected seven stage points.
Lining up in fourth place for the start of the second stage period on Lap 52, Jones would slowly slip out of both the top five and top 10 on the track. Being scored in 19th place by the Lap 70 mark, three laps before Parker Kligerman drew a caution for spinning in Turn 4, Jones would pit even as pit road was closed following Kligerman’s incident to have a brake issue to his No. 9 Menards/CharBroil Chevrolet Camaro addressed. Amid multiple pit stops, the Atlanta native was able to continue and ended up in 25th place when the second stage period concluded on Lap 90.
As the final stage period commenced with 103 laps remaining, Jones, who was still mired outside the top 20 but had a fast car to march back to the front, would return to the top 20 mark with 93 laps remaining. After returning to the top-10 mark with 77 laps remaining, he cycled his way up to fourth place with nearly 40 laps remaining and following a late round of green flag pit stops. Through three additional caution periods and restarts, where top names including series-points leader Austin Hill, Cole Custer and Jones’ teammate Justin Allgaier were being eliminated due to late-race incidents, Jones, who restarted in the second row with 12 laps remaining, overtook Kyle Busch to move into second place as he set his sights on Chase Elliott for the lead.
Trailing Elliott by a second with 10 laps remaining, Jones began to methodically shave off Elliott’s steady advantage for the proceeding laps through the turns and straightaways as he trailed Elliott by seven-tenths of a second with five laps remaining. Despite scraping the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2 with three laps remaining, he kept his foot on the throttle and still had Elliott close within his sights. Despite narrowing the gap to four-tenths of a second on the final lap, Jones, who tried to mount a final lap charge on Elliott, ran out of time to narrow the gap even closer as he crossed the finish line half a second behind in the runner-up spot behind race winner Elliott.
Amid the disappointment of coming up one spot short of his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in two years, Jones emerged with a smile across his face and as the highest-finishing JR Motorsports competitor on the track as he finished ahead of teammates Sammy Smith and Sam Mayer, both of whom capped off strong runs in third and fourth place, respectively.
“Talk about an up-and-down day and coming back from [the brake issues],” Jones said on FS1. “That was really fun to come from the back to the front, I think, three or four times right there. Really, really fast Camaro right there. We probably needed some track position. I’d like to have been a little bit better on that restart to take advantage of just getting some clean air on the nose. I think that’s really what [Elliott] just had at the end.”
Jones’ runner-up result marks the 10th time he has finished in second place in an Xfinity event as he achieved his first top-five result of the 2024 season and his first since finishing second behind John Hunter Nemechek at Kansas Speedway last September. Jones’ previous best season result was seventh at Phoenix Raceway in March.
With the result, Jones, who has now garnered five top-10 results through the first 12 events of the 2024 Xfinity Series schedule and came into the event in 11th place in the driver’s standings, gained one position to 10th place as he trails the regular-season points leader Austin Hill by 150 points. The good news for Jones is that he is 15 points above the top-12 cutline to make the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs with 14 regular-season events remaining on the schedule until the 2024 Xfinity Playoffs commence.
Currently campaigning in his second season driving the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports, Jones has yet to achieve his first victory or his first Playoff berth as a JRM competitor. He last achieved both during the 2022 season while driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, with a victory at Martinsville Speedway in April 2022.
“All in all, a really, really fun day,” Jones added. “I love these hot slick races you gotta prepare for. Wished we could’ve won, but we’re really, really close right now. This team’s kind of have some up and downs all year. We just continue to fight. Looking forward to the rest of the races here. We’re gonna get this thing in the Playoffs soon.”
Brandon Jones’ next start of the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ third annual event to Portland International Raceway in Portland, Oregon, for the Pacific Office Automation 147. The event is scheduled for next Saturday, June 1, and will air at 4:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
