Brandon Jones Passes Teammate on the Last Lap to Win at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, VIRGINIA - APRIL 08: Ty Gibbs, driver of the #54 Monster Energy Toyota, and Brandon Jones, driver of the #19 Menards/Lyons Toyota, race during the NASCAR Xfinity Series Call 811 Before You Dig 250 powered by Call 811.com at Martinsville Speedway on April 08, 2022 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

Brandon Jones passed his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs on the last lap in double overtime to score his first Martinsville win in the Call 811 Before You Dig 250. Friday night’s win is his fifth win in the Xfinity Series, all for Gibbs. 

“I mean, what a day, I couldn’t say we could’ve done it any better,” said an ecstatic Jones. “This is a driver’s race track, you have to get after it. That’s a good win.” He gave credit to his team for adjustments and strategy: “We just knew how to use our tools. You couldn’t have played it out any better.”

Jones’ last-lap move mirrored what Ty Gibbs himself did to teammate John Hunter Nemecheck the previous week at Richmond. However, Gibbs got into Nemecheck and pushed him up the track, while Jones took advantage and dived for an opening. Still, Gibbs saw the parallel. 

“I was on the other side of it last week,” said Gibbs. 

Video: Ty Gibbs, Sam Mayer tangle after Martinsville Xfinity race

Gibbs wasn’t ready to make nice with everyone, though. He came to blows with his old ARCA rival Sam Mayer after the race. Gibbs was unhappy after Mayer pushed him up the track and wrecked him after he was passed on the last lap, as both drivers were fighting for the Dash 4 Cash bonus. 

To a chorus of boos, Gibbs said, “I tried to talk to him and he got all in my face, at that point we’ve got to start fighting. Only thing I’m made about is he wouldn’t have gotten past the sixteen there, and he just kept driving until the end.”

That was also far from the only high-contact racing of the night. At sixteen cautions, the race made the top ten in series history for number of cautions. The first overtime attempt ended with a massive pileup on the frontstretch after Mayer spun the tires on the restart, resulting in a red flag that lasted over 20 minutes. 

MARTINSVILLE, VIRGINIA – APRIL 08: A general view of of an on-track incident during the NASCAR Xfinity Series Call 811 Before You Dig 250 powered by Call 811.com at Martinsville Speedway on April 08, 2022 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

AJ Allmendinger ended up surviving to win the Dash 4 Cash with a third-place finish. “I’m happy with the money,” he laughed. “That was a bit of a struggle. I’m happy for all the men and women at Kaulig Racing to get the $100,000, some hard-earned money because they’ve been working really hard.” “We got a lot of work to do, no doubt about it, but we’re maximizing each race.”

Allmendinger’s teammate Landon Cassill finished second after everything cleared up, and both Kaulig teammates will be eligible for the Dash 4 Cash bonus when the series heads to Talladega for its next race in two weeks. 

 

Photos: NASCAR at Martinsville Speedway Friday, April 8, 2022

Owen Johnson