Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-45)
- Brandon Jones started the second race of the Round of 8 from the third position at Texas Motor Speedway in his No. 19 Toyota Service Centers Toyota Supra.
- Jones immediately grabbed the second spot on the first lap of the 200-lap race.
- The first caution flag flew on lap 10 with an incident between the 8 and 21 cars in Turn 4. Jones stayed out and restarted second on lap 14.
- NASCAR called for a competition yellow on lap 20 and Crew chief Jeff Meendering advised Jones to stay out. He reported his Supra was starting to lose grip.
- Jones restarted third under the choose rule, but immediately took over the second spot on lap 25.
- On lap 35 Jones passed Chase Briscoe for the lead and led the next 12 laps.
- The third caution flag waved on lap 39 and Meendering’s strategy had Jones stay out to gain the stage points as several cars pitted.
- Jones restarted on lap 44 as the leader and had a great restart winning stage 1 and gaining 10 stage points.
Stage 2 Recap (Laps 46-90)
- Jones started Stage 2 from 15th and finished in the 10th spot.
- Meendering called Jones down pitroad for fuel, four tires and dropped the trackbar one round.
- Jones restarted Stage 2 from 15th on lap 51 and started fighting his way through traffic back to the top-10.
- On lap 80 Jones reported he was still too tight as he ran in 10th place.
- The second stage ended on lap 90 and Jones finished 10th as the green-white-checker dropped.
Stage 3 Recap (Laps 91-200)
- Jones started the final stage from the ninth position and finished in 25th place.
- He reported he was struggling in traffic and still was tight. Meendering had Jones pit for fuel, four tires and more wedge adjustments. He restarted ninth on lap 96.
- Harrison Burton spun through the grass on lap 107 bringing out the sixth caution. Jones was running in 10th and radioed in that he was three numbers tight. The spotter reported that there was grass on the grill of Jones’ Toyota Supra. Meendering told him to rub it off on the 8 car ahead of him and stay out. Jones restarted from ninth on lap 112.
- Jones survived two more cautions and fought hard as he broke into the top-five on lap 167.
- The 10th caution came out on lap 168. On the final restart on lap 175 Jones was in fifth place when the 7 car was wrecking with the 10 car and came down and hooked Jones’ Supra shooting him up the track hitting the 10 car and outside wall causing extensive damage.
- Meendering called Jones down pitroad to have the Toyota team evaluate the damage and work on repairs, but unfortunately the control bar had broken, sending Jones to the garage ending his day early. He was scored in the 25th position after a very strong run.
- Jones is now seeded fifth in the playoffs and is four points below the cutline for the Championship 4 as he heads to Martinsville Speedway for the final race of the Round of 8.
BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Toyota Service Centers Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 25th
Brandon, you had a great car today. You won the first stage, and then got caught up in an accident not of your own making. Can you talk about your finish?
“I feel like track position is everything and it’s been that way for at least three quarters of the year so far. We get really good track position to start the race and can maintain it. A couple of guys try to short pit us and then once we flip-flop and start getting back in the field a little bit that’s when we start struggling. The balance is so good in clean air that when we put a bunch of cars around us, that’s when it changes. We are going to keep working on it and we are going to eventually get it dialed in. I think we made huge gains, huge improvements on our Supra this time around versus the past. Just able to see how much we are able to get the car to be able to turn there in the end. We were in the right position coming to that last restart that we had. We were kind of leaning towards the top thinking that it was going to be better, but we had that same thing go through our mind – if one of those guys were to slide up or take us out – but you hate to race like that, with fear of all of that stuff. I guess we kind of know now going forward. Harrison (Burton) winning was a big help. I’ve got the truck race before our race next week, so I think that’s going to be a huge one-up on everybody to have some laps on the track and to have just a race under your belt. I’m looking forward to it. I think we can still get into this thing. One thing is for sure, you are not going to knock us down.”
Four points out going to Martinsville. What’s your focus this week as you prepare?
“I’ve actually got simulator time Monday all the way to Thursday, and then I’ve got the race Friday, so every single day, I’m going to be making laps on the race track, which is really good. Having the truck race gave me a little added time. I’m going to get on the last day of the week before the race I’m going to get on iRacing for sure with Blake (Koch) and run through a bunch of stuff. He’s been helping myself and Harrison (Burton) a bunch this year. We are going to put a lot of effort into it for sure. There’s a lot of unknowns going into the weekend. I think we are basing our cars a bunch on our Cup cars since they go there every year but still some kind of unknowns for sure.”
Next Up: The Xfinity Series now heads to Martinsville Speedway for the first time since 2006 on Saturday, October 31, 2020. Jones will be in the No. 19 Menards/Swiffer Toyota Supra. The race starts at 3:30 p.m. ET with live coverage provided by SiriusXM Channel 90, MRN and NBCSN.
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