Brandon Jones makes most of his overtime effort at Kansas Speedway with Xfinity victory

Brandon Jones put himself through a long, hot gauntlet over a 24-hour span at Kansas Speedway, competing in three consecutive races starting with Friday night’s trucks race.

All the laps, heat and fatigue didn’t slow Jones on Saturday evening. Jones charged from seventh at the outset of the overtime, two-lap shootout finish to the Kansas Lottery 250, taking the lead on the final lap for his second consecutive Xfinity Series victory at Kansas Speedway.

“It came down to these last restarts both of these (wins), and it shows how strong we can be,” Jones said.

Jones was an afterthought coming into the green-white-checkered finish. He trailed the likes of Austin Cindric, who dominated the majority of the race, and Harrison Burton, who caught Cindric and was well on his way to victory before a caution with four laps to go set up the dramatic finish.

Jones liked the way his car performed at the top of the track, and made his move just after Cindric took the lead at the white flag, taking the high line into turn one.

“When I got to turn one, I had so much grip. (Me and the team) did a good job communicating, and that’s what we saw at the end there,” Jones said. “Me and (Cindric) have had our ups and downs a little bit. He ran me pretty clean there, and it all worked out at the end.”

The first attempt at an overtime finish was thwarted when a car in the back of the pack spun out on turn two. That set the stage for the second attempt for a finish.

Cindric seemed poised to make history for most of Saturday’s race, attempting to become the first driver to win four consecutive Xfinity Series races since Sam Ard in 1983, the second year of the series.

Cindric won the first two stages, leading 117 consecutive laps (and 130 in all). Yet he also needed the late caution to get into contention for the win after Burton passed him late in the race. Cindric grabbed the lead early on the final lap but couldn’t hold off the hard-charging Jones after that. He settled for a runner-up finish.

“There’s like 20 things I feel like I should’ve done differently,” Cindric said. “I was tighter than I needed to be (on the restart), and watching the replay, (Jones) had a (heck) of a run. Overall, congratulations to him. He went from seventh to the lead in two laps.”

Burton, 19, finished in third position. His was the only car that had a chance of chasing down Cindric, which it finally did with nine laps to go.

“As I get more experience, I want to get to that mindset and drive at a maximum level while thinking. I found a line that made a lot of speed but was really hard on the front tires, and (Cindric) did a great job defending that at the end of Stage 2,” Burton said.

Burton anticipated that the line would wear on Cindric’s front tires, so Burton switched his strategy and erased a 3-second deficit in the second half of the race.

“That’s such a fun feeling, passing for lead and watching (Cindric) get smaller in the mirror after how fast he’s been recently.”

As for Jones, he left Kansas Speedway tired, dehydrated, and happy.

“It was pretty brutal man. I’ve never done a triple header like this. I was hurting at the end,” Jones said. “My face throbbing, feeling sick. When you’re in the car you forget about it.”

No doubt a win helped ease some of that pain as well.

This story was originally published July 25, 2020 at 7:54 PM.