Brandon Jones, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, started the weekend at the top of the leaderboard in both NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) practice and qualifying Friday afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS). Jones will start on the pole for Saturday’s Ambetter Health 302 NXS race after laying down a qualifying lap of 29.439 seconds (183.430 mph) following his 30.155-second lap time (179.075 mph) in practice.
“Everything has to flow throughout the whole day to be able to win,” Jones said. “Being able to be first in practice and first in qualifying is a lot. Everything I’ve done this week has been to prepare, so hopefully we can get the job executed. We don’t have to do the stage points thing not being in the playoffs. We can truly just go for it, and when you can just go race for the win, that is kind of a nice thing to be able to do.”
Joining Jones on the front row will be Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing, who qualified P2 with a lap time of 29.478 seconds (183.187 mph). Las Vegas native Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing, will start seventh, and current NXS points leader Justin Allgaier, driver of the No. 7 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, will start sixth.
This weekend’s on-track action continues Saturday starting with NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) practice (1:35 p.m. PT/4:35 p.m. ET) and qualifying (2:20 p.m. PT/5:20 p.m. ET) on USA Network, PRN and SiriusXM followed by the Ambetter Health 302 NXS race at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET on The CW, PRN and SiriusXM. Race weekend will conclude Sunday with the South Point 400 NCS race at 11:30 a.m. PT/2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN and SiriusXM. This weekend’s races serve as the first in the Round of 8 for both the NCS and NXS Playoffs.
For tickets or more information on the South Point 400, visit www.lvms.com or call 1-800-644-4444. Weekend and single-day tickets are still available; race-day tickets for kids 12 and under are just $10 and free on Saturday with the advance purchase of an adult ticket.
