Brandon Jones earns much-needed third-place finish at Phoenix

Perhaps no driver needed a good run in Saturday's Xfinity Series race at Phoenix more than Brandon Jones. 

The 28-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia, came into Saturday's race 29th in the standings with finishes of 37th at Daytona, 13th at Atlanta and 30th at Circuit of the Americas. 

On Saturday, Jones and the No. 20 team put together what was easily their best race of the 2025 season so far. Jones earned 10 stage points, had an average running position of 5.15 and brought home a third-place finish after a chaotic overtime restart. 

If the start-finish line was a little further down the track, Jones — who finished .122 seconds behind race winner Aric Almirola — may have had a chance to steal a win and a playoff berth. 

Following Saturday's race, Jones now sits 20th in points, 16 points out of the 12th and final provisional playoff spot. 

It's not exactly a surprise that Phoenix is the track that Jones broke his cold streak at. Jones won at Phoenix in the spring of 2020, and while his career has stagnated over the past several seasons, Phoenix has consistently been a beacon of light. 

Jones will look to string together another solid performance next weekend at Las Vegas, where the No. 20 team won in March of 2024 with John Hunter Nemechek.