NXS: Erik Jones out-duels Keselowski and Earnhardt to win O’Reilly Auto Parts 300

With 26 laps to go, Erik Jones had a solid restart, clearing both Brad Keselowski and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to take the lead. He would then cruise the rest of the way to scoring his first career XFINITY Series victory in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. Jones is running a partial XFINITY schedule this year while contending for the Camping World Truck Series Championship. It marks Joe Gibbs’ first XFINITY win of the year.

“I don’t even know what to say right now. It’s surreal,” he commented. “It’s going to take awhile for this one to soak in. Confidence is something that I’ve never doubted in myself – I’ve always believed in myself growing up. Getting to victory lane in the XFINITY Series at Texas Motor Speedway, it’s amazing. We beat the Cup guys. That’s huge. I think we’re going to have a great year.”

Starting on the pole, Jones ran up front throughout the whole night in the top-three. He led laps early, and took the lead with 50 laps to go from Dale Earnhardt Jr. after a lengthy battle back and forth. The caution then flew with 32 laps to go when Cale Conley blew a tire, catching Brendan Gaughan and causing Gaughan to hit the outside wall hard. All the leaders came to pit road, with Jones winning the race off. He was then hold off the field with 26 to go.

“We had a great car from the start, but man he was racing us hard,” Jones commented of his battle with Earnhardt. “I don’t know if he had fun tonight, but I had a lot of fun – obviously coming out on the better end. I had a blast. It was so much fun racing them hard like that. They know what they’re doing, but I’m just learning as I go. I learned so much racing side by side with them.”

Keselowski would finish second after having to start at the rear of the field due to “unapproved adjustments” following qualifying. Those adjustments included changing the fuel gauge and fuel pump.

“Erik had a great car, and did a great job,” he said. “We ran wide open side by side for two laps in a row and eventually, he cleared me. The Discount Tire Ford was fast, but not quite fast enough.”

Earnhardt would finish third after running up front throughout the entire event, leading a small portion.

“Couldn’t go when I needed to go – car stepped out real big,” he said. “Dave (Elenz) and the guys helped the car quite a bit, got it handling really good. Good job to Gibbs and Erik and those guys – I thought Brad had the best car, but Erik had it when it counted and took off. I knew that he was good, but now the world knows.”

Regan Smith finished fourth after having to rebound back to the front following a loose lug nuts under one of the pit stops.

“We had a fast Chevrolet,” he said. “It was fast all weekend. I thought it was a car that could challenge for the win, but we had to battle back. I have to say my guys made up for it, gaining me spots every other time we came down pit road afterwards. You’re going to have mistakes over the year and you just have to battle back when you do. We finished in front of the other XFINITY guys so that’s a good thing.”

Austin Dillon finished fifth, followed by Darrell Wallace Jr., Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott. Chris Buescher and Brian Scott. Points leader Ty Dillon finished 12th, and now leads Buescher by two points. Defending series champion Elliott sits third, 11 points behind.