MARTINSVILLE, VA. – JR Motorsports driver Brandon Jones arrives in Martinsville this week as the defending winner of Saturday night’s Call811.com BeforeYouDig 250 (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and those victory vibes just might be enough to help the perpetual race favorite get back on track in 2023.
Through the opening seven races Jones has yet to score a top-10 since moving to the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet for the 2023 season. But it certainly isn’t for a lack of trying. His best showing is 11th on the Austin, Texas road course. He did lead a season-high 24 laps at Richmond two weeks ago and he’s got a promising history with the Martinsville half-miler scoring top-10s in four of his five starts and leading laps in three of those.
Jones and his JR Motorsports teammate Josh Berry are the only fulltime Xfinity Series drivers entered this weekend that have won at Martinsville since the series started racing there again in 2020 after a 14-year absence from the facility. Berry, who is ranked fifth in the championship won at Martinsville in 2021 and the driver of the No. 8 JRM Chevy brings a solid five Top-10s on the season into the race weekend.
Another solid storyline to follow is Riley Herbst’s quest for his first career Xfinity Series victory. The Las Vegas native has six top-10 finishes in the opening seven races of 2023 – joining points leader Austin Hill and John Hunter Nemechek as tops in that category. Herbst is second to Hill in the championship by a mere 12 points – his highest career position in the standings. And at Martinsville, the driver of the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford has four top-10s in five starts and is coming off a career best third place last Fall.
Hill, a three-race winner in the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, finished fourth and ninth last season – his only two NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Martinsville. His best showing in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series at the track is runner-up in 2021. The Georgia native certainly has been strong this season – the only driver to lead the championship to date.
This is a big weekend for incentive money. JRM’s Justin Allgaier collected a cool Dash 4 Cash $100,000 bonus check with his 13th-place effort two weeks ago at Richmond (Va.) Raceway – and as a result, is eligible again this week for the second round of the popular Dash 4 Cash incentive from Xfinity.
His JR Motorsports teammate Josh Berry, Kaulig Racing’s Chandler Smith and Joe Gibbs Racing’s John Hunter Nemechek are the four eligible competitors this Saturday. The highest finisher among them earns the big check. The top four eligible finishers from this weekend’s race will have a chance to race for another $100,000 at Talladega, Ala. next week.
A 35-minute Martinsville practice is set for Friday at 5 p.m. ET with qualifying immediately following. Interestingly, only six times has the pole-winner also won the race. The last to do so was Jimmy Hensley in 1987.
Source: Holly Cain/NASCAR Wire Service
