CONCORD, N.C. – Todd Gilliland may have dominated the first half of Thursday night’s General Tire 150, but it was Brandon Jones who ended up victorious in the return of the ARCA Racing Series to Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Jones led the final 12 laps after passing Gilliland exiting turn four, but had to hold off a spirited charge from Joe Gibbs Racing’s Riley Herbst following the final restart of the night with seven to go.
Herbst closed to within a car length of Jones on the final lap, but Jones came across the finish line first for his fifth-career ARCA victory and first since Michigan Int’l Speedway last June.
“Man, I honestly was thinking there might be a tap on that last lap,” admitted Jones. “Sometimes, when you get really close in these cars, air packs up to you really bad and you get really loose … but at the same time I knew if I could block his (Herbst’s) lane that he’d get really tight and wouldn’t be able to get to my bumper on that last lap.
“The whole race was interesting, to say the least,” Jones added. “I knew we were really quick, even though the 54 (Gilliland) was super fast all day in practice, and even through the last stint he was right up there. We just had to keep digging. We were really free all day, but I was so good on long runs that it was hard to adjust on the car. Thankfully it all worked out for us, though, because this feels really good.”
The race was truly a tale of two halves, as Gilliland started from the pole and utterly dominated the first 50 laps. He jetted out to a lead of as much as six seconds at times and made working traffic look effortless as he stayed glued to the bottom of the race track in his No. 54 Frontline Enterprises Toyota.
By contrast, Jones didn’t take the lead for the first time until lap 56 of the 100-lap event, but it was a restart with 13 to go that truly allowed the NASCAR Xfinity Series regular to shine and take command.
The Atlanta, Ga., native got a shove to the top spot from Gilliland entering turn one, passing MDM Motorsports teammate Sheldon Creed, who had elected the top lane for the restart and spun the tires.
Creed settled in off turn two and quickly tried to cross over to the bottom, but got loose entering turn three and washed up the race track, nearly taking Jones to the wall and opening the inside lane for Gilliland in turns three and four.
Gilliland edged ahead of Jones at the line to lead lap 88, but Jones rallied back on the next lap, moving inside of Gilliland off turn four to grab the lead back just as the final caution flag of the night waved for Chase Purdy’s hard shunt into the outside wall after a three-wide fight for third went sour.
That set up the sprint to the finish, in which Herbst pounced quickly after Creed tried to shoot through the middle for the lead. Herbst rose from fourth to take second with five laps left, carving chunks out of Jones’ leading margin with every circuit that passed.
With four to go, it was a half second deficit and with two to go, Herbst was on Jones’ bumper for the win.
However, a slower car occupied the bottom lane – Herbst’s preferred groove – entering turn three on the final lap, leaving the Las Vegas native unable to mount a charge as Jones cruised home to the win by .293 of a second.
Though he didn’t ultimately come away with the victory, Herbst was left smiling after a race “full of positives.”
“All you can ask for in racing is to have a shot at the end, and we had it … we just couldn’t capitalize. It was really fun racing my teammate; we had a great battle and tonight gave us a lot of things we can build on,” said Herbst. “It’s as close as you can get to a win, but I’m treating this like a win because we’ve been struggling with momentum and this is a huge shot in the arm for us.
“I wish we could have had the bottom on the last lap, but we were stuck on the top because of traffic,” Herbst added. “Sometimes there’s just nothing more you can do.”
Creed completed the podium in third, trailed closely by Gilliland, who faded heavily over the final run to finish fourth. ARCA points leader Zane Smith was fifth.
Quin Houff, Bret Holmes, Will Rodgers, Codie Rohrbaugh and Brandon Lynn were the rest of the top 10.
The finish:
Brandon Jones, Riley Herbst, Sheldon Creed, Todd Gilliland, Zane Smith, Quin Houff, Bret Holmes, Will Rodgers, Codie Rohrbaugh, Brandon Lynn, Travis Braden, Max Tullman, Austin Hill, Gus Dean, Natalie Decker, Andy Seuss, Brandon Grosso, Joe Graf Jr., Tom Berte, Leilani Munter, Michael Self, David Sear, Zach Ralston, Chase Purdy, Tyler Dippel, Jesse Iwuji, Bryan Dauzat, Don Thompson, Con Nicolopoulos, Brad Smith.
