Brandon Jones advances within the NASCAR Xfinity Sequence Playoffs through victory at Kansas Speedway on Saturday afternoon within the Kansas Lottery 300.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — With a flawlessly executed race from begin to end, Brandon Jones preserved his bragging rights at Kansas Speedway, successful Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 NASCAR Xfinity Sequence Playoff occasion.
Brandon Jones Advances through Victory
The one driver within the discipline to have received a earlier Xfinity race on the 1.5-mile intermediate monitor, Jones pulled away through the closing 38-lap green-flag and beat runner-up rookie sensation Connor Zilisch to the end line by 2.787 seconds.
With the victory, his second of the season, his third at Kansas, and the seventh of his profession, Jones claimed a berth within the Playoff Spherical of 8. Zilisch and defending collection champion Justin Allgaier additionally superior to the following spherical on factors.
“That was precisely like how we would have liked that to go down,” mentioned Jones, who began from the pole, led 54 of 200 laps, and completed second in every of the primary two levels. “Two actually stable levels—no errors. All the day was so properly executed. That’s in all probability by far in my profession my most well-executed race.
“I’m so pleased with these guys (his No.20 Joe Gibbs Racing group). We labored so exhausting all week to get right here and put a race like this collectively.”
Justin Allgaier and Sam Mayer
Allgaier and Sam Mayer stayed out on 15-lap older tires through the fourth and closing warning of the afternoon, hoping for a subsequent warning that might enable them to make use of their final set of Goodyears. Nevertheless, the warning by no means got here, and Allgaier and Mayer completed thirteenth and sixteenth, respectively.
Allgaier, who received the primary two levels and led a race-high 79 laps, didn’t have an issue with crew chief Jim Pohlman’s strategic name.
“They give you the results you want generally, they don’t another occasions,” Allgaier mentioned. “Dissatisfied… our (No. 7 JR Motorsports) Chevrolet was actually good.”
Connor Zilisch Continues Making Historical past
Although the dealing with of his No. 88 Chevrolet wasn’t exactly to his liking, Zilisch scored his sixteenth straight top-five end result, breaking a tie with Sam Ard (1983) for the collection report.
“I didn’t really feel like our automotive was winning-capable, besides at some extent there in stage three, I assumed we had an opportunity at it,” mentioned Zilisch, who led 42 laps. “We’ll take a look at it and see what we might have finished higher. We had been simply form of throwing Hail Marys at all of it day and attempting to make one stick—however it didn’t stick.”
Austin Hill completed third, adopted by fellow Playoff drivers Sammy Smith, Sheldon Creed, Taylor Grey, Jesse Love, and Nick Sanchez.
The following playoff race has the makings of an intense battle to qualify for the Spherical of 8. Love is the final driver above the lower line. He leads Nick Sanchez by 5 factors and Austin Hill by seven. After ranging from the rear and ending twentieth, Harrison Buron is down by eight factors. Sammy Smith is down by 14 factors.
Mayer is highest within the standings of these not but clinched for the Spherical of 8. He has a 38-point cushion getting into the elimination spherical subsequent week.
Contact from Sanchez’s No. 48 Chevrolet knocked the No. 19 of Justin Bonsignore out of the race. He completed thirty seventh, dropping the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 9 factors beneath the proprietor’s level standings elimination line.
Up Subsequent
The NASCAR Xfinity Sequence’ subsequent playoff race is at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s ROVAL Saturday, October 4th. The Spherical of 12 elimination race is the Blue Cross NC 250, beginning at 5 p.m. ET, on CW, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Sam Mayer is the defending winner.
