Brandon Jones Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. — Chandler Smith had a message for his Joe Gibbs Racing team after taking the checkered flag in overtime in Saturday’s Call811.com Every Dig. Every Time. 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Phoenix Raceway. “We’ll take ‘em when we can get ‘em,” Smith radioed before celebrating his second career victory with a burnout near the start/finish line. It was good fortune—combined with Justin Allgaier’s disastrous bad luck—that put Smith in Victory Lane after 205 laps at the one-mile track in the SonoranRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS — Chandler Smith won the battle. John Hunter Nemechek won the war.  The Joe Gibbs Racing teammates spent most of Saturday afternoon racing each other for the top spot in The LiUNA!, a 300-mile NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was Nemechek who proved superior in the long run.  After Smith won the first two stages of the race—the second with a deft last-lap pass of Nemechek’s No. 20 Toyota—Nemechek asserted his dominance.  By the time Nemechek crossedRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — While other NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers were competing, and crashing, in Monday night’s United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway, Austin Hill was playing a different game — Monopoly. At the 2.5-mile superspeedway roughly two miles away from Atlantic Avenue, Hill beat former teammate Sheldon Creed to the finish line by 0.591 seconds to earn his third straight victory in the Xfinity season opener at the World Center of Racing. The third win came on Monday because of weekend-long rainRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Sam Mayer claimed his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series oval-race victory in the second half of a NASCAR double-header at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday in the Contender Boats 300 after holding off last week’s race winner Riley Herbst by a mere .227-second. It marks the JR Motorsports driver Mayer’s fourth series victory of the season – and his career – most important for Mayer – who joked he didn’t breath the final four laps – it is his ticket into the Championship 4 finale that will decideRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS — It was a fitting venue, a perfect scenario for Riley Herbst to earn his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series race – a dominating 14.9-second victory in the Alsco Uniforms 302 at his home track, Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Herbst’s No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford led 103 of the 201 laps of the Playoff race leaving no room for error in this career-making day for the 24-year old Las Vegas native. It was the largest margin of victory in the series thisRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Texas – John Hunter Nemechek made the winning pass with seven laps remaining in Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway to punch his ticket to the next round of the series Playoffs and increase his series-best and career-best single season total to seven victories. His No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led only 38 of the day’s 200 laps, but managed to get around Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman and race off to a 1.005-secondRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service KANSAS CITY, Kan. – There were no mixed feelings on Parker Kligerman’s part — he was ecstatic that John Hunter Nemechek asserted absolute domination over the rest of the field in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway. Nemechek’s sixth victory of the season assured Kligerman, who finished a strong fourth, of a berth in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs, which open next Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway. Kligerman outlasted Riley Herbst, who entered the race with a one-point advantage for the final PlayoffRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – Overcoming an early wreck, a late caution and an angry teammate, John Hunter Nemechek claimed a milestone victory in Saturday’s Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan International Speedway.  The NASCAR Xfinity win was the 200th in the series for Joe Gibbs Racing. For Nemechek, it was the fifth victory of the season and the seventh of his career—all at different tracks.  After Patrick Emerling pounded the Turn 3 wall to cause the seventh and final caution of the race on Lap 112, NemechekRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Sam Mayer took a dramatic double overtime victory in Saturday’s Road America 180 at the iconic Elkhart Lake, Wisc. road course – the 21-year old hometown favorite claiming his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory at his home race track; rolling into victory lane, climbing onto his driver’s side window and pulling apart his drivers suit like Superman to a happy and familiar crowd. The JR Motorsports driver was certainly super in the closing laps on Saturday. Mayer’s win in the No. 1 JRM Chevrolet makesRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Austin Hill survived an early race pit road speeding penalty, gambled on fuel strategy and prevailed in an incredible wheel-to-wheel run to the checkered flag in overtime to claim his fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the season in the Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway on Saturday.  As important as the victory for the 29-year old Georgia-native his good day combined with an uncharacteristic disappointing day for his closest rivals in the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship standings gave him aRead More