Brandon Jones advances in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs via victory at Kansas Speedway on Saturday afternoon in the Kansas Lottery 300.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — With a flawlessly executed race from start to finish, Brandon Jones preserved his bragging rights at Kansas Speedway, winning Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff event.
Brandon Jones Advances via Victory
The only driver in the field to have won a previous Xfinity race at the 1.5-mile intermediate track, Jones pulled away during the final 38-lap green-flag and beat runner-up rookie sensation Connor Zilisch to the finish line by 2.787 seconds.
With the victory, his second of the season, his third at Kansas, and the seventh of his career, Jones claimed a berth in the Playoff Round of 8. Zilisch and defending series champion Justin Allgaier also advanced to the next round on points.
“That was exactly like how we needed that to go down,” said Jones, who started from the pole, led 54 of 200 laps, and finished second in each of the first two stages. “Two really solid stages—no mistakes. The entire day was so well executed. That’s probably by far in my career my most well-executed race.
“I’m so proud of these guys (his No.20 Joe Gibbs Racing team). We worked so hard all week to get here and put a race like this together.”
Justin Allgaier and Sam Mayer
Allgaier and Sam Mayer stayed out on 15-lap older tires during the fourth and final caution of the afternoon, hoping for a subsequent caution that would allow them to use their last set of Goodyears. However, the caution never came, and Allgaier and Mayer finished 13th and 16th, respectively.
Allgaier, who won the first two stages and led a race-high 79 laps, didn’t have a problem with crew chief Jim Pohlman’s strategic call.
“They work for you sometimes, they don’t some other times,” Allgaier said. “Disappointed… our (No. 7 JR Motorsports) Chevrolet was really good.”
Connor Zilisch Continues Making History
Though the handling of his No. 88 Chevrolet wasn’t precisely to his liking, Zilisch scored his 16th straight top-five result, breaking a tie with Sam Ard (1983) for the series record.
“I didn’t feel like our car was winning-capable, except at a point there in stage three, I thought we had a chance at it,” said Zilisch, who led 42 laps. “We’ll look at it and see what we could have done better. We were just kind of throwing Hail Marys at it all day and trying to make one stick—but it didn’t stick.”
The Kansas Lottery 300 Results
Austin Hill finished third, followed by fellow Playoff drivers Sammy Smith, Sheldon Creed, Taylor Gray, Jesse Love, and Nick Sanchez.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series Point Standings
The next playoff race has the makings of an intense battle to qualify for the Round of 8. Love is the last driver above the cut line. He leads Nick Sanchez by five points and Austin Hill by seven. After starting from the rear and finishing 20th, Harrison Buron is down by eight points. Sammy Smith is down by 14 points.
Mayer is highest in the standings of those not yet clinched for the Round of 8. He has a 38-point cushion entering the elimination round next week.
Contact from Sanchez’s No. 48 Chevrolet knocked the No. 19 of Justin Bonsignore out of the race. He finished 37th, dropping the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota nine points below the owner’s point standings elimination line.
Up Next
The NASCAR Xfinity Series’ next playoff race is at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s ROVAL Saturday, October 4th. The Round of 12 elimination race is the Blue Cross NC 250, starting at 5 p.m. ET, on CW, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Sam Mayer is the defending winner.