MARTINSVILLE, Va: Brandon Jones returned to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway hoping to reset his inaugural Xfinity Series season with JR Motorsports around in Saturday night’s Call811.com Before You Dig 250.
Despite showing speed in his race cars as the replacement driver for Noah Gragson – Jones has not been able to produce the finishes to match his speed.
That was until Saturday night.
The driver of the No. 9 Menards | Nibco Chevrolet Camaro not only answered the race with a top-10 finish, but the mainstay Xfinity Series driver hustled to his first top-five finish of the year.
The last time Jones’ visited the famed Martinsville, Va.-short track, he was met with heartbreak. Leading the race within the final laps of the penultimate race of the year, Jones had the opportunity to sweep the year and march his way into the Championship 4.
The win did not happen and neither did the chance to contend for the Xfinity Series championship. An aggressive move by his then Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs sent Jones’ No. 19 Supra around and abruptly ended his night.
In his return to the 0.526-mile paperclip oval, Jones embraced a drama-free event but withstood some challenges to dethrone his top-five effort over the final laps of the race to earn his 37th career top-five finish and first under the JR Motorsports umbrella.
“I knew at some point we were going to get this thing turned around,” said Jones after the race. “After last week (Richmond), we got speed there and I knew this was one our tracks circled that we man we come here and were good, no matter what. We changed organizations and were still fast.”
Jones admitted that he carried the speed in his No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro to win his sixth career Xfinity Series but lacked the track position and grip – especially in the final run to challenge John Hunter Nemechek for the win in the eighth race of the season.
“At times all throughout the night we had speed to win the race, but man just need track position at this place,” Jones explained. “You can kinda get it from the second row or so. I think the best place on a restart is obvious being third in line. You just get back fifth, sixth and it gets difficult, but we made the best of it.”
Averaging a finish of 20th in the opening seven races of the season, Jones was ecstatic to see a complete race fuse together and right the ship in his eighth-full time season.
“Glad we finally finished a dang race where we needed to,” Jones said with a smile. “This is really good for this whole group, I can tell they are lit up about it, so it’s a good turn of events.”
With his 102nd career top-10 finish, Jones moved up to 14th in the championship standings heading into the series’ next race, the Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on April 22.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01 or email: [email protected]
