KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Erik Jones completed a sweep of the first two stages in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300, surviving a back-and-forth battle with Ryan Blaney in the waning laps for his second-straight and eighth overall NASCAR XFINITY Series stage win of the season.
Jones has now won three of the last four XFINITY stages contested.
Though a shove from Blaney gave ploesitter Tyler Reddick a brief lead on the resumption of the stage at lap 52, Jones quickly took the top spot back three laps later and held serve out front all the way until a spinning Elliott Sadler drew the only caution of the stage with 14 laps left before the stage break.
At that point, Cole Custer led several cars down pit road for fresh tires, while Jones and Blaney led the field back to green for a nine-lap dash to the green-checkered flag.
Blaney was able to power to Jones’ inside on the lap 82 restart, but couldn’t shake Jones, who re-passed him for the lead and the stage win three laps later and crossed the stripe 1.107 seconds in front.
Behind Jones and Blaney, Justin Allgaier was the highest-ranked XFINITY regular and playoff contender in third, followed by Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick.
William Byron, Cole Custer, Brennan Poole, Daniel Hemric and Austin Dillon completed the points-scoring drivers in the top 10 at the second stage break.
Sadler rallied back to 11th after his spin, while Ryan Reed (12th) and Matt Tifft (19th) were other playoff contenders who failed to score stage points in the second segment.
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.
Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 23-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
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