Brandon Jones celebrates in victory lane after winning Friday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway. Photo: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
On older tires, Brandon Jones stole an Xfinity Series win from the scion of the owner of his race team on Saturday night at Martinsville Speedway.
Jones dived to the inside of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs as the race went to a second overtime. Jones cleared Gibbs on the second circuit (lap 261) and got to the finish line .677 seconds ahead of Landon Cassill, as Sam Mayer bumped Gibbs’s Toyota and squeezed it into the outside wall off the final corner.
While Mayer and Gibbs tangled, A.J. Allmendinger took third and the $100,000 Xfinity Dash 4 Cash bonus that goes to the highest finisher among four eligible drivers, a group that also included Mayer and Gibbs.
Gibbs led 198 of the 261 laps in a race that was scheduled for 250. Jones led 28. But Gibbs was too busy fighting Mayer on pit road after the race to worry about the lap count.
While Jones was performing a celebratory burnout on the frontstretch, Gibbs strode to Mayer’s car, and heated words soon led to punches — Mayer with helmet off, Gibbs with helmet still on.
“I tried to talk to him, and he got in my face, and that’s when I had to start fighting,” Gibbs said.
“The only thing I’m mad about is that he (Mayer) wasn’t going to get by the 16 (Allmendinger), and I got hit in the left rear. It’s just frustrating, but I was on the other side of it last week (moving John Hunter Nemechek for a win at Richmond), so that’s just part of it.”
The dust-up on pit road did nothing to dampen the elation of Jones, who picked up his first Xfinity Series win since 2020 and the fifth of his career.
“It’s fun to beat him (Gibbs),” Jones said. “He’s hot right now.”
If Gibbs was hot, in another figurative sense, Mayer was unapologetic after the incident, which left him with a swollen left eye.
“With a hundred grand on the line, I put the bumper to him — that’s what short-track racing’s all about,” Mayer told FoxSports’ Bob Pockrass. “He got upset… he threw a couple of punches that were weak… But I just put the bumper to him for a hundred grand, and he got upset, but he’s been doing that to everyone else every week so far.”
Long before the chaotic ending, the race got off to a rocky start. Rain began falling right after the command was given to start engines and the green flag was delayed until a small storm cell left the area.
And before the field could complete a lap, the engine in Brennan Poole’s No. 47 Chevrolet exploded, sending a plume of smoke into the cool night air and dropping a trail of oil on the track.
The smoke was an appropriate metaphor. For the rest of Stage 1, Gibbs smoked the rest of the field, leading 59 of the 60 laps.
By pitting early under caution on lap 42, Noah Gragson inherited the lead when Gibbs brought his No. 54 Toyota to pit road at the Stage 1 conclusion, but it didn’t take Gibbs long to prevail on new tires.
On lap 88, the 19-year-old Gibbs passed Gragson for the top spot and began to pull away until Stefan Parsons’ spin in Turn 2 on Lap 101 caused the fifth caution.
Undeterred, Gibbs maintained his advantage, but the restart on lap 108 gave Jones the opportunity to slip past Gragson for second. Gibbs elected to pit under caution on lap 117 after contact from Anthony Alfredo’s Chevrolet turned the Toyota of Derek Griffith in turn 1, causing the sixth caution.
That handed the stage win to Jones, who surrendered the lead to Parsons — with Gibbs running fourth — by pitting during the stage break, along with other drivers who had stayed out to collect stage points.
It took Gibbs fewer than two circuits to regain the lead after a restart on lap 129. But at that point, barely past halfway, there were still nine cautions, two overtimes and a fistfight to go.
Gragson’s winning chances would evaporate in a wild multicar wreck that stopped the first attempt at overtime almost before it started.
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Martinsville Speedway – Martinsville, VA
811 Before You Dig 250 – April 8, 2022
1. Brandon Jones, Toyota, 261
2. Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 261
3. A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 261
4. Austin Hill #, Chevrolet, 261
5. Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, 261
6. Riley Herbst, Ford, 261
7. Ryan Truex, Toyota, 261
8. Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 261
9. Ryan Sieg, Ford, 261
10. Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 261
11. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chevrolet, 261
12. Parker Retzlaff, Ford, 261
13. Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 261
14. Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet
15. Alex Labbe, Chevrolet 261
16. Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 261
17. Bayley Currey, Chevrolet, 261
18. Matt Mills, Chevrolet, 261
19. Josh Berry, Chevrolet, 261
20. Noah Gragson, Chevrolet, 261
21. Derek Griffith, Toyota, 261
22. Jade Buford, Chevrolet, 260
23. David Starr, Ford, 260
24. Myatt Snider, Chevrolet, 260
25. Ryan Vargas, Chevrolet, 260
26. Joe Graf, Jr., Ford, 260
27. Shane Lee, Ford, 260
28. Stefan Parsons, Chevrolet, 260
29. Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 260
30. Sheldon Creed #, Chevrolet, 259
31. J.J. Yeley, Toyota, 259
32. Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, Accident, 255
33. Mason Massey, Chevrolet, DVP, 255
34. Brandon Brown, Chevrolet, Accident, 250
35. Natalie Decker, Ford, 242
36. Howie Disavino III, Chevrolet, Driveshaft, 37
37. Brett Moffitt, Chevrolet, Driveshaft, 13
38. Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, Clutch, 0
Average Speed of Race Winner: 56.099 MPH
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 26 Mins, 50 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.677 Seconds
Lead Changes: 12 among 7 drivers
Lap Leaders: T. Gibbs 1-12; J. Allgaier 13; T. Gibbs 14-64; N. Gragson 65-87; T. Gibbs 88-117; B. Jones 118-123; S. Parsons 124-128; R. Herbst 129; T. Gibbs 130-159; S. Creed # 160-165; B. Jones 166-186; T. Gibbs 187-260; B. Jones 261.
Stage 1 Top 10: 54, 7, 18, 10, 11, 16, 19, 8, 1, 2
Stage 2 Top 10: 19, 10, 39, 68, 08, 23, 99, 51, 98, 35
Playoff Standings: 1. Ty Gibbs – 322 (3 Wins); 2. A.J. Allmendinger – 342 (1 Win); 3. Noah Gragson – 300 (1 Win); 4. Brandon Jones – 253 (1 Win); 5.Austin Hill # – 226 (1 Win); 6. Josh Berry – 248; 7. Sam Mayer – 235; 8. Justin Allgaier – 233; 9. Daniel Hemric – 227; 10. Ryan Sieg – 227; 11. Riley Herbst – 212; 12. Landon Cassill – 201.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
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