Jones gets first win as Playoff drivers have issues; Kansas Lottery 300 recap
KANSAS CITY, Kan —Brandon Jones emerged victorious in the Kansas Lottery 300 to claim his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series win. Jones snapped a 133-race winless streak and 10 laps en route to his first win.
The race began with Jones on the front row, alongside teammate and pole sitter. In the first 61 laps, Bell led 60 laps and Cole Custer led one lap, while the race was slowed twice for caution. The first caution was on Lap 5 for Ryan Truex blowing an engine and Lap 45 marked the end of stage one, which was won by Bell.
The remaining points-earners in stage one were Custer, Noah Gragson, Tyler Reddick, Justin Allgaier, Ross Chastain, Chase Briscoe, Brandon Jones, John Hunter Nemechek and Michael Annett.
Custer took the lead on Lap 62 and shortly thereafter, the third caution fell on Lap 69 for Harrison Burton hitting the wall in turn 3. Contact with Austin Cindric caused Burton to hit the wall and fall out of the race on Lap 71. Cindric would have continuing issues, having pitted on Lap 79 and Lap 86.
Custer would hang to win stage two to pick up his 43rd Playoff point of the season. The remaining points-earners were Bell, Reddick, Allgaier, Briscoe, Gragson, Annett, Chastain, B. Jones and Justin Haley.
Under the stage two caution, Bell took the lead from Custer but Custer took the lead back on Lap 102. Custer would hold the lead until a restart after the fifth caution of the day, which fell on Lap 146 for Michael Annett having issues in turn two. Chase Briscoe took the lead on Lap 152 and would hold control of the race, even despite a Lap 164 caution for John Hunter Nemechek spinning and Michael Annett staying out on a subsequent restart to lead briefly. Bell would dog Briscoe and both ran into trouble on Lap 185 when Garrett Smithley made contact with Briscoe as Briscoe was lapping him, which set off a wreck between them and Bell.
On the Lap 191 restart, Custer restarted in the lead but wouldn’t hold it long. Reddick made contact with Custer in turn two, which caused Custer to brush the wall and fall back. This incident would lead to a post-race scuffle between the two drivers.
While Custer and Reddick had issues, Brandon Jones would get by. Jones would have to survive a caution for Gragson and Joey Gase having issues and a subsequent restart, but he would hold on to win his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series race.
Jones snapped a 133-race winless streak to win his first career Xfinity race. This year’s Kansas race also marks the third year in a row where a driver has won their first career Xfinity race in it.
The remaining top 10 finishers were as followed: Tyler Reddick (Playoffs), Chase Briscoe (Playoffs), Michael Annett (Playoffs), Justin Allgaier (Playoffs), Jeremy Clements, Justin Haley, John Hunter Nemechek, Ryan Sieg and Ross Chastain.
Playoff drivers Cole Custer, Christopher Bell, Noah Gragson and Austin Cindric finished 11th, 12th, 13th and 25th respectively.
Other notable finishes were Jeremy Clements (6th), Ryan Sieg (9th), Ray Black Jr (14th) and Alex Labbe (15th).
Bell (+49 ahead of cutoff) is the points leader following Kansas and the remaining Playoff standings are as followed: Custer (+38), Reddick (+37), Allgaier (+2), Briscoe (-2 behind cutoff), Annett (-12), Gragson (-17) and Cindric (-30).
The next race will be at Texas Motor Speedway for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300, Saturday November 2 at 8:30 PM EST, NBCSN.
