Brandon Jones wins wild Xfinity Series race
Brandon Jones did not have the fastest car. He was not the driver to beat and he was not considered the favorite.
But at the end of the Kansas Lottery 300 on Saturday evening at Kansas Speedway, Jones was holding the checkered flag.
Saturday’s race was the first of the Round of 8 for the NASCAR Xfinity Series, meaning the next three races will set the Championship 4 in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
In other words — it’s kind of a big deal.
It seemed likely that one of the “big three” in the Xfinity Series — Cole Custer, Christopher Bell, and Tyler Reddick — would go to victory lane. At the very least, a playoff driver would shut out everyone else.
For a while, that looked all but certain. Bell dominated and won Stage 1. Custer seemed to find some speed and won Stage 2. Fellow championship contender Chase Briscoe hung around in the top five for much of the race and even led 33 laps.
However, all of these drivers encountered issues before the checkered flag waved, allowing Jones to pull through and grab the victory.
“This is incredible,” Jones said in victory lane. “I knew this was going to happen – that we were going to come here and have an amazing run like we did today. It’s only because of those guys here. They have fought with me for a long time, and this feels way better because it has been tough to get to this point.”
Though Jones was in or near the top five for much of the race, Jones didn’t actually lead until the final 10 laps — despite the fact that Reddick and Briscoe were running him down in the closing laps.
“I’m not going to lie about this,” said Jones. “My foot was literally shaking on the accelerator on that last lap. I’m not even sure if I was wide open at the time, when I was doing it. There was a lot of nerves. A lot of emotion going through my mind, but I saw it coming and got pretty pumped.”
Jones is no longer a part of the playoff picture, so the victory is more of a moral victory than a season-changing accomplishment.
However, it’s the biggest moment of Jones’ career. This is his first career victory in any of NASCAR’s three national series, despite 133 prior starts in the Xfinity Series and 44 starts in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series.
Full 2019 Kansas Lottery 300 Results
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Reddick, Custer tangle on and off track
One thing became very apparent early on in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 — no one was going to drive away easily and win the race.
Cole Custer was the first driver to demonstrate that, chasing down pole-sitter Christopher Bell and eventually showing that he had a better long-run car.
However, the rest of the field wasn’t going to make it easy on Custer either.
After winning Stage 2 and running inside the top two virtually the whole race, Custer made contact with Justin Haley after a restart with 49 to go.
While Custer was able to keep the car moving forward, he lost a ton of track position and fell outside the top 10.
With a fast car, some determination and, let’s be honest, misfortune from other competitors, Custer was eventually able to work his way back towards the front.
However, in a late restart where Custer once again had a shot at the victory, Reddick made contact with Custer’s rear bumper and the No. 00 again fell back through the field.
It was too late in the race to make up the positions again. Custer finished 11th.
That was the last straw. After pulling onto pit road post-race, Custer got out of his car, walked over to Reddick, and put his hand on Reddick’s shoulder.
Reddick put his hands on Custer in return and all hell broke loose.
Custer said he was going over to Reddick to express his frustration.
For his own part, Reddick stated he would have rather left the confrontation between he and Custer.
Reddick was able to hang on to second to eventual winner Brandon Jones.
The spat likely won’t cost either driver anything other than maybe some bruises. Both Reddick and Custer will enter Texas Motor Speedway in a couple of weeks with a fairly comfortable cushion between them and fifth place.
Now, whether or not this newfound rivalry continues through the rest of the Round of 8 and into Homestead … I guess we’ll just have to watch and see.
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Garrett Smithley owns up to accident that took out two playoff drivers
The aggression level was high in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Kansas Speedway, so it wasn’t very surprising when two competitors made contact with one another.
It was, however, surprising when a lapped car wound up in an accident with two championship contenders and two of the fastest on the track.
With Cole Custer recovering from contact with another driver, pole-sitter Christopher Bell and Stewart-Hass Racing with Biagi-DenBeste driver Chase Briscoe were left to battle it out for the top spot.
Despite the fact that Bell dominated and won Stage 1, and was still the second-best car when Custer was out front, Briscoe was able to hold his own once he was in clean air.
However, Bell wasn’t going down without a fight.
Bell was right on Briscoe’s heels with 15 laps to go when the two came up on lapped car Garrett Smithley. Smithley drove up the track and towards the nose of Briscoe’s car.
At the same exact moment, Bell was attempting to make a pass and made contact with Briscoe’s left rear.
The three cars collided, ending Smithley’s day and eliminating Bell’s chances of winning his eighth race this season.
While radio communication from Bell and Briscoe seemed to indicate the drivers were angry with each other, it was Smithley who took responsibility for the incident, posting the following on Twitter after the race:
Freddie Kraft was Smithley’s spotter and was criticized harshly on social media for his perceived role on the accident.
Post-race, Bell had yet to see the replay of the accident but expressed regret that the intense battle with Briscoe ended up in a crash.
Though he was able to rebound for third despite losing and having to replace his rear bumper as a result of the incident, Briscoe was still frustrated with the crash, feeling like the win was essentially stolen from him.
Bell was able to finish the race on the lead lap in the 12th position. Smithley retired from the incident immediately after the wreck and finished 33rd.
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Austin Cindric’s championship hopes crumble in Kansas
If Austin Cindric came into Kansas with high hopes for his championship potential, he left with a brutal reminder that this sport has a tendency to humble you in a hurry.
Cindric started the race in third and with a realistic shot at the title. He had earned two victories this season and was on a streak of three top fives heading into the weekend.
Oh how quickly that all changed.
Less than 20 laps into the race, Cindric made contact with the wall. He was able to keep going for a while but eventually had to make an unscheduled stop that cost him valuable track position. He finished 24th in the first stage.
On lap 70, Cindric brought out the caution after getting into the back of Harrison Burton’s car. Burton’s left front made contact with the front of Cindric’s car, inflicting more damage.
Burton was out of the race but Cindric was able to continue.
Not long after the restart, the driver of the No. 22 was aggressively working his way through the field, but made contact with another driver, John Hunter Nemechek, along the way. He wound up having to make another unscheduled stop to fix the damage.
And then, once again, on lap 86, trouble struck the No. 22. A flat tire forced Cindric to return to pit road, again causing the loss of track position and continuing to see his championship hopes decrease.
Cindric seemed to avoid any major trouble the rest of the day (as if that wasn’t enough), but finished the race in the 25th position, six laps off the pace.
“We had a loose wheel to start and that definitely didn’t help things,” Cindric said post-race. “I probably didn’t help compounding issues trying to get back in the stage points. You are trying to race to get laps on other cars to finish 25th. We still have a lot to fight for and I still think we are a championship caliber team and still bringing great race cars to the race track. I have had a bigger hole than 30 points so I will take that and run with it. I am proud of our efforts. Before today our worst finish in the playoffs was third and our worst qualifying position is third. There is a lot to be said about our team. It is just a matter of going out now and trying to maximize.”
Cindric will enter Texas Motor Speedway — the second race in the Round of 8 — with a 30-point deficit to fourth-place Justin Allgaier. He will need to reach fourth in the standings if he wants to contend for the championship in Homestead.
While that is certainly not an insurmountable amount of points, Cindric will likely need to win to advance to the Championship 4.
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Daniel Hemric wins pole, two playoff drivers lose car chiefs
Richard Childress Racing rookie Daniel Hemric surprised the NASCAR community when he unexpectedly earned his first career pole on Saturday at Kansas Speedway.
The 28-year-old driver earned the top spot with a time of 30.329 seconds at 178.047 mph.
He will be joined on the front row by another surprise in David Ragan, who hadn’t won a pole in the Cup Series since 2011.
Playoff drivers Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, and Kyle Larson rounded out the top five.
A couple of playoff drivers found themselves in trouble with NASCAR prior to the session. The No. 19 driven by Martin Truex Jr. failed inspection twice, which resulted in car chief Blake Harris being ejected from the track. Truex will roll off 11th in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400.
Kevin Harvick, on the other hand, did not get off so easy. After failing inspection three times, car chief Robert Smith was ejected and Harvick was not allowed to qualify. He will start at the rear of the field.
The race begins at 1:30PM ET and will be broadcast on NBC.