Fresh off of 150 miles in Thursday’s ARCA Racing Series race, Brandon Jones led the field in the first full practice session for the NASCAR XFINITY Series.
Jones’ 30.352-second lap led the way in final practice for Saturday’s Drive for Safety 300 at Chicagoland Speedway.
It was an all-Jones top two, with Erik Jones ending the session in second with a time of 30.502 seconds. The Joe Gibbs Racing rookie will inherit the outright points lead heading into the inaugural NXS Chase unless Elliott Sadler wins Saturday’s regular season finale.
Daniel Suarez, Kyle Busch and Brennan Poole completed the top 5, with Justin Allgaier, Ty Dillon, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Larson and Blake Koch completing the top 10.
The session came after a delay for rain that fell 20 minutes into the planned first practice for the series. The rain forced NASCAR to cancel Sprint Cup Series qualifying for the weekend.
The caution flag fell only once on the session, coming around the midway point then Mike Harmon’s smoking No. 74 machine leaked oil onto the racing surface.
The XFINITY Series will return to action on Saturday at 11:45 a.m. for Coors Light Pole qualifying.
Aaron Bearden is a Frontstretch alumnus who’s come back home as the site’s Short Track Editor. When he isn’t working with our grassroots writers, he can be found talking about racing on his Morning Warmup newsletter, pestering his wife/dog or convincing himself the Indiana Pacers can win an NBA title.