Photo – Getty Images
Brandon Jones Becomes 11th Different K&N Pro Series Winner at Iowa
Keeping the trend of new winners at Iowa Speedway on track, 17-year-old Brandon Jones, captured his first NASCAR K&N Pro Series win Friday night in the Autolite Iridium XP 150. In 11 K&N East and West combo events, the track has produced 11 different winners, some of which include, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Corey LaJoie and now Brandon Jones.
In the 2014 season, Jones’ best finishes, before Iowa, are a third-place run in the series’ opener at New Smyrna Speedway and a runner-up at Five Flags Speedway. At New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Jones was in contention for a win when trying to pass for the lead, he collected Nick Drake, opening the door Jesse Little’s victory.
On a mission at Iowa, Jones was in the lead in the closing laps of the series’ combo event, holding off a late charge from second-place finisher Kenzie Ruston.
Ruston improved her own best finish of third-place – twice at Virginia’s Langley Speedway earlier this year – and became the highest finishing female in series’ history.
Cole Custer, the defending race winner finished third, with Rev Racing’s Sergio Pena and Jones’ Turner Scott Motorsports teammate Scott Heckert finishing fourth and fifth.
Rounding out the top-ten are Eddie MacDonald, Ben Rhodes, Kaz Grala, Greg Pursley and David Mayhew.
The game changer of the race was when Rhodes, the K&N East series’ points leader, was among four drivers penalized for pitting a lap early for the mid-race break. The penalty of restarting at the tail of the field also included the pole winner, Jesse Little, Brodie Kostecki and Kyle Benjamin. All four drivers were leading the field before the costly mistake.
Rhodes’ seventh-place finish, extended his points lead over Cameron Hayley to 71 and he is now 79 in front of Jones and Gaulding. Little finished 12th, Kostecki 15th and Benjamin 17th.
Credited with a victory as the highest finishing K&N West driver is Greg Pursley, adding to his championship points lead. He is now 36 points over second-place Dylan Lupton – finishing 27th – and 42 over third-place Brandon McReynolds – finishing 14th.
The Autolite Iridium XP 150 will air on FOX Sports 1 on Friday, August 8th at 11 am ET.
Next up for the K&N East is the Bully Hill Vineyards 125 road course race at Watkins Glen International on Friday, August 8th. The next race for the K&N West is the NAPA Auto Parts/Toyota 150 at Evergreen Speedway on Saturday, August 16th.