AVONDALE, Ariz.— After a rough start to 2025, Brandon Jones scored his first top-five result since the Xfinity Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway last May.
In his fourth start in his return to Joe Gibbs Racing, Jones entered Phoenix Raceway 29th in the NXS standings.
The 28-year-old needed to jump-start his season—and he did just that with a third-place result in the GOVX 200 after the race went into overtime.
“Dang, I thought I was going to win the race,” Jones said. “Honestly, the move into (Turns) 1 and 2, when they (Aric Almirola and Justin Allgaier) both washed up, was kind of the ticket. The 17 (Alex Bowman) and the 19 (Almirola) were running each other so hard all day, I knew that was my chance.
“It always happens here. You get a late-race restart and it can go either one of two ways—you can get swallowed up, or two guys can run into each other like they did—and you try and take advantage of it.”
“Half of me is heartbroken because I wanted to win the race so bad,” Jones said. “I thought we just executed the whole day, it was so phenomenal. Great job on pit road all day, kept good track position for the stages and got good points. Then had a race-winning move. I just couldn’t hold him off there.”
Jones qualified 16th and finished eighth at the end of Stage 1 on Lap 45. He climbed to second by the third caution on Lap 63 and settled into fourth by the end of Stage 2 on Lap 90. Jones was running third when the fifth caution was called for Dawson Cram’s crash in Turn 1. When the race restarted, a battle ensued between Almirola and Jones, who were running fourth and fifth, respectively.
“Those guys are just racing super hard,” Jones said. “You have to remember how long Almirola raced the Cup Series. He still has that Cup Series mentality. That’s how those guys race on Sundays. So that’s where I got to get myself back to.”
Allgaier, the defending Xfinity Series champion, led 130 laps. He had a 1.2-second lead before the sixth and final caution triggered by Nick Leitz sent the race into overtime. Jones started behind Allgaier on the inside lane with Bowman outside. Throughout the two-lap overtime, he held his position to the end.
“I was really happy to see everybody just rally from three difficult races to start the year,” Jones said. “I could have easily gotten down, and it would have been really hard to turn around, but we did it today. We got back to where we needed to be. I had a shot to win. That’s what you need to do.
“And if you put yourself in the position I did in (Turns) 1 and 2 in every race, you’re going to get some wins.”
