Balanced Jones Hopes JGR Xfinity Team Finds Title Form

Brandon Jones (Nigel Kinrade/NKP photo)

CONCORD, N.C. – After Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones made the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs for the first time in three years, the Georgia native looks to take a measured approach to the postseason.

The 10-year veteran went winless and failed to make the Xfinity Series playoffs during his two-year stint at JR Motorsports, but Jones rekindled the magic he had during his first stint with JGR by winning the Sport Clips/VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway during NASCAR throwback weekend.

That victory, the sixth of Jones’ career, combined with three stage wins and a seventh-place finish in the regular season to make him the fifth seed entering the playoffs. Jones begins his title chase eight points above the cut line, occupied by rookie-of-the-year contender Carson Kvapil.

A mix of consistency and race-winning speed is what Jones hopes to have in his No. 20 Menards Toyota GR Supra during the seventh postseason appearance of his Xfinity Series career.

“That's going to be the balance this year,” Jones emphasized. “I've done a good job, in my opinion, and it's getting taken advantage of a little bit … of through the regular season, cutting guys breaks and just trying to make it to the end of some races sometimes. [It’s about] recognizing if I have a good enough car to go for it.”

While taking care of his Toyota, Jones knows that cutting other drivers breaks might have been beneficial in the regular season, but it has to change now that the playoffs have arrived.

“If I don’t have a car to win, (I was) trying to just take my licks and try to finish races,” Jones explained. “But now that we’re here and now that I’ve made it again to the playoffs, that changes. It has to amp itself up some.

“I’m not talking about driving beyond my limits and wrecking race cars and destroying people. That’s not how you win a championship,” he clarified. “That’s not how you're going to get [to the title round at Phoenix Raceway]. But recognizing the days where, ‘OK, this car can win the race, so 100 percent we’re going to go compete for it,’ those are the days that you can’t cut anybody any breaks.”

Despite six previous appearances in the Xfinity Series playoffs, the 28-year-old has never made it to the Championship 4. The closest he came to making the final round was in 2022, when he was wrecked at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway while leading.

Jones’ best points finish in NASCAR’s playoff era was sixth in 2020.

Having been run over and wrecked in the past, Jones recognizes that while he has to race his competitors hard, he can’t afford to make enemies this deep into the season.

Brandon Jones celebrates with a burnout after winning at Darlington Raceway in April. (Scotte Sprinkle/Motorsports Hotspot photo)

“I mean, if you get a run on somebody and they choose to go down and block you, you can’t just hit the brake pedal at that point,” Jones admitted. “They've made their bed of, ‘Well, we know Brandon’s faster, but I’m going to try to hold him back there,’ and rightfully so. They don't want to lose a position. You can’t say, ‘Oh, you’re right. I’m going to give it to you and not wreck you,’ because that doesn’t go into competitors’ minds as, ‘Oh man, thank you so much for cutting a break.’ That turns into, ‘I can block him and he’s not going to wreck me.’ So, it has to ramp itself up in that aspect a little bit.

“On the flip side, the days that you think ‘Hey, maybe today I’m only fifth at best. I’m really struggling to get to fifth.’ Those are not the days that you go up there to the lead and start running into people and charging through people,” he added. “Those will be the times a driver starts making enemies, and I don’t want to rub somebody the wrong way.”

Jones is, arguably, one of the most respectful drivers on the Xfinity Series grid. While he doesn’t want to frustrate or anger others, he knows that he has to learn to crank up his aggression.

“I don’t rub people the wrong way in the sport,” the Toyota driver said. “If there’s anything, like I said before, it’s the opposite, right? So, I have to learn how to crank that up just a little bit. I've got to own the 10-year veteran mindset in the sport. And we’ve got the speed to go win these [playoff] races.”

Of the seven tracks in the playoffs this year, Jones has won at four of them: Kansas Speedway (2019 and ‘20), Martinsville (2022), and Phoenix (2020).

Jones’ best finish at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway is third, most recently in the 2021 Alsco Uniforms 300 when he led 28 laps. His best finish at Bristol Motor Speedway – site of the playoff opener on Friday night – was second in the 2022 Food City 300.

In the two wild card events, his best finishes are second twice at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and fifth in 2021 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL.

“I look at the playoffs … five out of the seven, excluding Talladega and the (Charlotte) ROVAL because they’re wild cards, I believe we can go and be able to win,” Jones stated. “I can be leading those other two easily and get destroyed, just out of spite.

“But the ones that I feel like we can go have good days at, the playoffs line up really well for me, the tracks that are in it.”

The veteran experience of recognizing the need to strike a balance in the playoffs could lead Jones, the only full-time Xfinity driver for Joe Gibbs Racing to earn a victory this season, to the Championship 4 for the first time in his career.

That goal begins at the track known as The Last Great Colosseum.

Broadcast coverage of the playoff-opening Food City 300 airs Friday night, Sept. 12 at 7:30 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.