Brandon Jones wins at Kansas to advance in NASCAR Xfinity playoffs

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- With a flawlessly executed race from start to finish, Brandon Jones preserved his bragging rights at Kansas Speedway, winning Saturday's Kansas Lottery 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series playoff race.

The only driver in the field to have won a previous Xfinity race at the 1.5-mile intermediate track, Jones pulled away during the final 38-lap green-flag run and beat runner-up rookie sensation Connor Zilisch to the finish line by 2.787 seconds.

With the victory -- his second of the season, his third at Kansas and the seventh of his career -- Jones claimed a berth in the Playoff's Round of 8. Zilisch and defending series champion Justin Allgaier also advanced to the next round on points.

"That was exactly how we needed that to go down," said Jones, who started from the pole, led 54 of 200 laps and finished second in each of the first two stages. "Two really solid stages--no mistakes. The entire day was so well executed. That's probably by far in my career my most well-executed race.

"I'm so proud of these guys (his No.20 Joe Gibbs Racing team). We worked so hard all week to get here and put a race like this together."

Allgaier and Sam Mayer stayed out on 15-lap older tires during the fourth and final caution of the afternoon, hoping for a subsequent caution that would allow them to use their final set of Goodyears. But the caution never came, and Allgaier and Mayer finished 13th and 16th, respectively.

Allgaier, who won the first two stages and led a race-high 79 laps, didn't have a problem with crew chief Jim Pohlman's strategic call.

"They work for you sometimes, they don't some other times," Allgaier said. "Disappointed ... our (No. 7 JR Motorsports) Chevrolet was really good."

As for Zilisch, though the handling of his No. 88 Chevrolet wasn't precisely to his liking, he scored his 16th straight top-five result, breaking a tie with Sam Ard (1983) for the series record.

"I didn't feel like our car was winning-capable, except at a point there in Stage 3, I thought we had a chance at it," said Zilisch, who led 42 laps. "We'll look at it and see what we could have done better. We were just kind of throwing Hail Marys at it all day and trying to make one stick -- but it didn't stick."

Austin Hill finished third, followed by fellow Playoff drivers Sammy Smith, Sheldon Creed, Taylor Gray, Jesse Love and Nick Sanchez.

Next Saturday's final Round of 12 race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course has the makings of an intense battle for the final positions in the Round of 8. Love, the last driver above the current elimination line, leads Sanchez by five points, Hill by seven, Harrison Burton (20th Saturday after starting from the rear) by eight and Smith by 14.

Mayer, highest in the standings of the drivers not yet locked into the Round of 8, has a 38-point cushion entering the final event in the round, the Blue Cross NC 250 (5 p.m. ET, Oct. 4, on CW, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Contact from Sanchez's No. 48 Chevrolet knocked the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Justin Bonsignore out of the race in 37th place and dropped that car nine points below the elimination line in the owners' standings.

1. (1) Brandon Jones (P), Toyota, 200.

2. (7) Connor Zilisch # (P), Chevrolet, 200.

3. (17) Austin Hill (P), Chevrolet, 200.

4. (14) Sammy Smith (P), Chevrolet, 200.

5. (10) Sheldon Creed (P), Ford, 200.

6. (2) Taylor Gray # (P), Toyota, 200.

7. (12) Jesse Love (P), Chevrolet, 200.

8. (13) Nick Sanchez # (P), Chevrolet, 200.

9. (4) Brenden Queen, Chevrolet, 200.

10. (9) Dean Thompson #, Toyota, 200.

11. (6) William Sawalich #, Toyota, 200.

12. (38) Daniel Dye #, Chevrolet, 200.

13. (5) Justin Allgaier (P), Chevrolet, 200.

14. (20) Christian Eckes #, Chevrolet, 200.

15. (19) Carson Kvapil # (P), Chevrolet, 200.

16. (3) Sam Mayer (P), Ford, 200.

17. (24) Kyle Sieg, Ford, 200.

18. (8) Rajah Caruth(i), Chevrolet, 199.

19. (15) Ryan Sieg, Ford, 199.

20. (18) Harrison Burton (P), Ford, 199.

21. (27) Leland Honeyman, Chevrolet, 199.

22. (11) Patrick Staropoli, Toyota, 199.

23. (21) Matt DiBenedetto, Chevrolet, 199.

24. (36) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 199.

25. (22) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 199.

26. (34) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 198.

27. (23) Parker Retzlaff, Chevrolet, 198.

28. (29) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 198.

29. (31) Austin Green, Chevrolet, 198.

30. (26) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 198.

31. (30) Mason Massey, Chevrolet, 197.

32. (25) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 197.

33. (33) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 196.

34. (37) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, 195.

35. (32) Kole Raz, Ford, 195.

36. (28) Blaine Perkins, Chevrolet, 195.

37. (16) Justin Bonsignore (P), Toyota, Accident, 154.

38. (35) Nick Leitz, Chevrolet, 140.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 127.992 mph.

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 20 Mins, 38 Secs. Margin of Victory: 2.787 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 4 for 26 laps.

Lead Changes: 16 among 7 drivers.

Lap Leaders: T. Gray # (P) 1-13;J. Allgaier (P) 14-49;B. Jones (P) 50-54;J. Allgaier (P) 55-63;B. Jones (P) 64;J. Allgaier (P) 65-94;B. Jones (P) 95-98;C. Zilisch # (P) 99-137;B. Jones (P) 138-143;C. Zilisch # (P) 144-145;N. Sanchez # (P) 146;C. Eckes # 147-149;B. Queen 150-157;C. Zilisch # (P) 158;J. Allgaier (P) 159-162;B. Jones (P) 163-200.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Justin Allgaier (P) 4 times for 79 laps; Brandon Jones (P) 5 times for 54 laps; Connor Zilisch # (P) 3 times for 42 laps; Taylor Gray # (P) 1 time for 13 laps; Brenden Queen 1 time for 8 laps; Christian Eckes # 1 time for 3 laps; Nick Sanchez # (P) 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 7,20,41,88,54,11,2,21,8,26

Stage #2 Top Ten: 7,20,41,88,8,54,26,21,00,19

--By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service. Special to Field Level Media