DARLINGTON, S.C. — Brandon Jones ended a 98-race winless streak in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition on Saturday afternoon and promptly declared his triumph at Darlington Raceway a statement victory.
Jones earned his sixth career victory but first since 2022 during his first stint with Joe Gibbs Racing.
Jones, 28, returned to JGR this season after spending two winless years with JR Motorsports.
To win on Saturday he had to outrun interlopers from the NASCAR Cup Series, including runner-up Chase Elliott, teammate Christopher Bell and Ross Chastain.
“This is just one I wanted to make a statement in,” Jones said. “Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott; some extremely talented Cup drivers in this field today. Sam McAulay (crew chief), these Joe Gibbs Racing guys, this pit crew, unbelievable. That’s what it takes to win these races.
“Everyone needs to be bought in, everybody’s got to be at their highest level. I had a restart with some of the best there at the end and knew it was going to be tough on older tires and some of the guys up front.”
The victory is a huge confidence builder for Jones.
“What an insane couple years it’s been to get back over here; get back mentally to know I’m back in a really good race car to win races again,” he explained. “It feels really good. I have to thank everyone at Turtle Wax, everyone at Menards. John Menard (founder and owner, Menards), everyone over there. They’ve become such good friends to me and family over a 10-year stretch racing Xfinity Series cars.
“For them to stick with us, it means a lot. I know this win means a lot for Menards and their whole family,” Jones added. “I feel like there’s definitely more to come, but all day, we were as fast as Xfinity mobile. I thought our qualifying run was great and that we were the car to beat in practice.
“It all just worked itself out. What kept me going during those last few laps was, just telling myself, ‘it’s going to work out. There won’t be a caution. It’ll be fine.’ Because how many times have you seen that, where there’s a caution right at the end with a few to go and then you get used up on a restart. Just nice to have it all work out. We fired on all cylinders today. Everybody did. This is huge momentum for us.”
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