In his first year back with Joe Gibbs Racing after spending two seasons with JR Motorsports, Brandon Jones managed to do what he did in all five seasons of his first JGR stint but failed to do with JRM: qualify for the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs.
After two winless seasons with JR Motorsports, Jones won at Darlington Raceway in the regular season to lock himself in, and he immediately won at Kansas Speedway, the site of three of his seven career wins, in the opening round to advance to the round of 8 for the fourth time in his career.
Jones began the semifinal round as one of four drivers above the Championship 4 cut line, but after a relatively mediocre 13th place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he placed sixth back in March, Jones has dropped from third in the standings to below the cutoff.
Brandon Jones facing uphill battle after Las Vegas
JR Motorsports teammates Connor Zilisch and Justin Allgaier remain atop the playoff picture, but Richard Childress Racing's Jesse Love vaulted his way from below the cutoff in fifth place up to third.
Jones dropped to fifth place and is now eight points behind Haas Factory Team's Sam Mayer, who remains in the fourth and final provisional Championship 4 spot.
Nobody is officially locked into the Championship 4 yet since the Las Vegas race was won by Joe Gibbs Racing's Aric Almirola, who is not a full-time driver.
Almirola notably did lock the No. 19 team into the owner Championship 4, however, meaning that not every driver who ultimately qualifies for the winner-take-all round will have the opportunity to win their team an owner title at Phoenix Raceway.
The United Rentals 250 is the middle race of the round of 8, and it is scheduled to take place on Saturday, October 18 at Talladega Superspeedway. Live coverage is set to be provided by the CW Network beginning at 4:00 p.m. ET, so begin a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss any of the action!