Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
By all accounts it was looking like another Kyle Busch runaway victory in the XFINITY Series Drive for Safety 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday afternoon. Busch led a race high 154 laps and appeared to be coasting towards victory until a tire went down on his No.18 NOS Toyota Camry.
His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Erik Jones seized the opportunity and took the lead with less than 10 laps to go, holding off a charging Kyle Larson to claim his fourth win of the season and secure the top seed in the inaugural XFINITY Series Chase that starts next week at Kentucky Speedway.
“I thought we were making a lot of speed today,” Jones said. “I saw Kyle Larson running me down on the high side so I moved up there and we had speed there too. Can’t say enough about Joe Gibbs Racing and this crew for this car today and we’re looking forward to having a chance to win a championship.”
“There are some tracks in this Chase that I feel really good about,” Jones said. “That’s what excites me knowing how strong we are and how well we’ve run at places like Kentucky and Charlotte. “It’s going to be great and looking forward to having a shot at bringing home a championship.”
Larson tried to run down Jones in the closing circuits at one point grazing the wall but fell one position short to finish second.
“We just got too tight there at the end and I couldn’t get close enough to try and make a move for the lead,” explained Larson. “Wish I had a few more laps to try and get it done but we’ll just see what we can do tomorrow in the Cup race.”
Elliott Sadler finished third followed by Daniel Suarez and Justin Allgaier.
Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Brendan Gaughan, Paul Menard, and Brandon Jones completed the first ten finishers.
The 12 drivers that will compete for the title starting next week at Kentucky are: Erik Jones, Sadler, Suarez, Ty Dillon, Allgaier, Darrell Wallace Jr., Gaughan, Brennan Poole, Ryan Sieg, Ryan Reed, Brandon Jones, and Blake Koch.
