Brandon Jones Finds Superspeedway Fortune At Daytona

Brandon Jones in action at Daytona Int'l Speedway. (Rusty Jarrett/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After a rough stretch to begin the month of August, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones has rebounded nicely.

At Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway on Friday night, that bounce back continued for the NASCAR Xfinity Series veteran.

He finished sixth in the Wawa 250 powered by Coca-Cola to capture his second top 10 in as many weeks. After a ninth-place effort at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l two weeks ago, his steady progression continued at the 2.5-mile superspeedway known as the World Center of Racing.

“It’s always insane at Daytona. It’s a shorter race, so the strategy played out a little bit differently. I was just happy to have a  good day,” said Jones. “I think we got points in each stage so that was beneficial and then to finish in the top five was nice. It’s hard to finish these races out; the first one here was so short for us with only making five laps.”

Jones referenced the season opener back in February, when he was caught up in a wreck during the opening stage. With that occurring, his team wasn’t able to build a full notebook for superspeedways in his first race back at JGR in two years.

This time around, by staying out of trouble, he collected a combined seven stage points as part of 38 total points earned on the night. It built confidence as Jones begins looking toward the playoffs this fall.

“We didn’t have a ton of notes to really go off of. We had a decent Talladega race which we had some solid stuff from, but it was nice to finally put one together,” he said. “We have [Alabama’s] Talladega Superspeedway again in the playoffs, so this race was important for us to just learn about what we need to take there.”

Friday night was also the 28-year-old’s first top 10 on a superspeedway this season. The last time he finished 10th or better was in September of last year at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta with JR Motorsports.

To go along with his win at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway back in May, Jones has four top fives and now nine top 10s this season. In his return to Joe Gibbs Racing, it took him 24 races to top his 2024 totals at JRM.

He sits seventh in the overall standings with two weeks left until the postseason begins.

“It was a learning day. I was happy with a lot of the moves that we made and the aggression we used when needed. The same goes for being cautious when we needed to as well,” he said. “Maybe a couple more laps and we could’ve gone for the win, but being the highest finishing Toyota is good, and we’ll take it and go on to Portland.”

In three races at Portland (Ore.) Int’l Raceway, the Atlanta, Ga., native has a career best finish of 11th place. That came with Joe Gibbs Racing three years ago, and Jones will look to earn his first top 10 on the Oregon roads in the penultimate race of the regular season.

Coverage of the Pacific Office Automation 147 from Portland is slated for Saturday, Aug. 30 at 7:30 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.