Brandon Jones, driver of the No. 19 Toyota Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing, saved his best for last in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) Kansas Lottery 250 at Kansas Speedway. Jones overtook Austin Cindric on the final lap of the second overtime restart to claim the green-white checkered flag by .405 seconds. In the process, he denied the bid of Cindric to become just the second driver in NXS history to win four straight races. For Jones, it was his second victory of the season and third in 154 career Xfinity Series starts.
“We’re never out of this thing, that’s what I love about these guys,” said Jones, who won for the second straight time at Kansas after emerging victorious in the 2019 Kansas Lottery 300. “We keep our head in the game, we don’t get excited during these races. We continue to make changes. My feedback I think was pretty good. It’s been a long two days, I feel exhausted and obviously the heat is big here. Looking forward to celebrating with these guys and it feels great to be back in victory lane.”
While Jones will get most of the credit for his final lap move for victory, he knows there were many more who played a part.
“I was just in position there,” Jones said. “I didn’t think the bottom was going to roll like it did. The top was pretty dominant all day. Just kind of depended on how your balance was and it really fired off the best we have all day. It was a group effort there, it wasn’t just me right there. It was an adjustment made and I think it really shows that we continue to make speed and keep our heads in the game.”
Cindric had been in charge for most of the race, winning both Stage 1 & 2, and leading 131 of the 175 laps. He now has amassed seven stage wins on the year, tied with Justin Allgaier for second-most in NXS this year, trailing only Noah Gragson (8). Cindric realizes there are many things he could have done differently to affect the final outcome, but he tries not to dwell on them.
“There are about 20 things I feel like I should have done differently,” said Cindric, who recorded his 13th top-10 and 11th top-5 finish in 17 races this year. “It was difficult because up higher was preferred all day and you could usually generate momentum. I didn’t know that we didn’t quite get the right adjustment there at the end, so I was probably tighter than I needed to be, but, overall, watching the replay he got a hell of a run on the bottom and I knew he had some momentum. I mean, if I maybe would have known he was coming from the bottom, I probably would have pulled down to slide myself into one and two and been able to fight for it in three and four, but, overall, congrats to him. He earned it. He went from seventh to the lead in two laps. It’s like the third or fourth time we’ve lost on a green-white-checker after being the leader at the line. There are a thousand different things you can do right and wrong and you’ve got to trust your gut and trust the car is gonna stick. Overall, it just wasn’t in the cards for four in a row.”
Rookie Harrison Burton, who finished third, owned a comfortable lead before a single-car incident in Turn 2 on lap 165 of the scheduled 167-lap race brought out the caution flag, leading to overtime. It was his 12th top-10 showing in 17 races this year.
Ryan Sieg (4th) and Ross Chastain (5th) rounded out the top 5.
There were nine lead changes among five drivers and five cautions for 22 laps.
Kansas Speedway PR
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