AVONDALE, Ariz: Brandon Brown’s late-race decision in Saturday afternoon’s Call 811 Before You Dig 200 at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway helped continue a strong start to the NASCAR Xfinity Series season for his family-owned Brandonbilt Motorsports team.
With a restart with two laps to go in the fifth Xfinity Series race of the season, Brown sat 10th but when the front-runners scattered at the drop of the green-white-checkered, Brown utilized the momentum of the bottom lane to clear the two miles of chaos and emerge with a career-best third-place finish.
“That was awesome,” said Brown after the race. “Everybody going four, five wide, just incredible. I am over the moon that we were able to keep it stuck down on the bottom and kinda avoid some of the bigger incidents – stay in it. The track stayed green and we were able to capitalize with a third-place finish.
“We are getting so much closer to knocking down that first win. I’m just so excited right now. I hope everybody enjoyed that as much as I did. That was such a blast. I always have fun at the short tracks.”
Brown said it wasn’t a race that just fell into their lap. The team had to work hard all day and earn their first top-five since Texas Motor Speedway last October.
“It was one of those things that we had to race all day, fight all day,” added Brown. “Granted people getting together on the last lap. You love to see it when it’s not you – when you can take advantage of it. I’m ecstatic with it. I’m going to look back at this race as we fought hard all day.
“Onto the next one. “I look forward to Atlanta Motor Speedway and let’s see if we can get that elusive first win.”
The finish propelled the Woodbridge, Va. native to ninth in the championship standings heading to the series’ next event a doubleheader with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Atlanta on Mar. 20, 2021.
Leaving Phoenix with four finishes inside the top-11, three of them in the top-10 (half of what he did last year), Brown is hoping his strong runs this season will help his Virginia-based team as they chase sponsorship week to week on their No. 68 Chevrolet Camaros.
“This is huge,” offered Brown of his hopes the finish will aid in their sponsorship search. “This is what the sponsors that on board need to see. This is what potentials sponsors need to see, potential investors, everybody that comes into play with the financing of NASCAR.
“You have to perform to get the TV time, the notoriety, basically the ROI (Return on Investment) for the sponsor. You need to run up front all day, but these last lap moves really, really help.”
A strong start to this season certainly can’t hurt the team’s efforts in the sponsorship department, but it also helps the team’s goal of returning to the Playoffs and giving Brown a second shot at a championship.
“Honestly, this is one of those things where we knew we needed a good start,” Brown explained. “We didn’t expect this hot of a start, but we knew we needed a good start, better than last year just because of how stout the Xfinity Series field is now with cars added, drivers added for (the) full season.
“It’s just one of those things those spots where we kinda nudged our way in, you are not going to be able to nudge anymore, you really are going to have fight for to just meet that same deadline of making the Playoffs.”
Carrying the Larry’s Hard Pink Lemonade paint scheme at Phoenix, Brown says earning his second career top-five finish is definitely worth celebrating, but it’s not a time to lose focus as a majority of the NASCAR Xfinity Series season remains to not only hunt a win – but solidify their placement in the Playoffs.
Brown explained, “It’s going to take us being better than we were last year. It’s going to take us being better than 11th most weeks. We need to be constantly in the top-10. Constantly fighting for stage points. We want to really work on trying to get a stage win.
“I think it’s going to take those Playoff points to get you in. There is more than enough cars that can win that can lock all the Playoff spots up. We have to no doubt be the best than the rest and beat some of those top Cup-affiliate teams or established team. We have to be there, and we have to take advantage of their mistakes constantly.”
Brown said his team doesn’t have sponsorship for next weekend’s Xfinity Series race at Atlanta, but the 27-year-old says he plans to run the Brandonbilt Foundations scheme and earn them some attention with those colors after finishing a disappointing 34th in its colors at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway last month.
“Atlanta we’re probably gonna go back with the home team company that we had on at Homestead – Brandonbilt Foundations. We are fighting really hard to go find sponsorships and to bring partners on board with this car.”
At the beginning of the season, it was not known if Brandonbilt would make the full season, but with an average finish of 12.4, a team spokesperson told CATCHFENCE.com that the team is committed to running Brown in the full 33-race schedule despite operating at a loss of $640,000 in 2020.
The team spent an estimated $2.2 million total last season, which earned them a Playoff spot and 11th in the overall championship standings with one top-five and six top-10s overall.
“There’s probably still 16 to 18 races that we don’t have filled,” Brown exposed. “It’s something we definitely need, especially when we look forward to taking the next step to be more competitive. Better top-10s, maybe more top-fives and again knock down that first win.”
Still, while the hunt for sponsorship will likely be a weekly project, Brown is ready to carry the confidence and keep his team in the spotlight as often as he can.
“It gets my confidence way up, it just shows them that the 68 is there, the 68 is going to race, going to race hard, I think they already knew that,” he added. “When the opportunity is there, I’m going to take it. I’m not going to lay back and get timid, we are really going to pounce on it.
“I’m hoping that something like this really catches fire for us. Really propels us in the right direction. That way, we are being recognized on and off the track.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
