XFINITY NOTEBOOK: Clements Collects A Stage Win

Brandon Jones (9) battles Jeremy Clements Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Jacob Seelman photo)

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Jeremy Clements didn’t leave Bristol Motor Speedway with a race win Friday night, but he did at least reach a variation of checkered flag first in the Food City 300.

Clements won stage two at The Last Great Colosseum, becoming the 63rd different driver in NASCAR Xfinity Series history to earn a stage win since the format debuted in 2017.

He stayed out under a late caution for Justin Allgaier’s spin on the backstretch and led from lap 157 through the lap-170 threshold that marked the end of stage two.

Notably, Clements pulled away to take the stage win by more than two seconds as multiple heavy hitters scrapped for second place behind him.

It was another milestone moment for Clements’ family-owned team as it continues to build toward more consistent high-level performance in NASCAR’s second highest division.

“Overall, it was a pretty good night,” Clements told Motorsports Hotspot after the race. “Our Chevy definitely had speed, but boy, we needed track position. Everyone saw what we could do when we got it, and that was cool to win the second stage there … especially how much we won it by.

“But once we pitted [during the second stage break] and got back there in traffic, it was so hard to pass. We over tightened the car a bit, and the track just kept getting tighter and tighter as more rubber was laid down, and just got way too tight there at the end,” he added. “I was battling for a top 10, and we just couldn’t hold it. But man, all in all, we’re running with the top teams and honestly, that’s all you can ask for in the position that we’re in. For a small team like ours, it’s all we can try to do is to have days like this. Honestly, [at Watkins Glen] we had another top 10 going until the end.

“But nights like tonight … that’s what good runs look like for us, I think.”

Though he’s not in the playoffs this year, Clements hopes to use the final seven races of 2024 to firm up the foundation of his team to get back to the form that led him to back-to-back postseason appearances in 2021 and 2022.

“It’s about building our notebook and trying to figure out how to make these Chevys handle for next year … and I hope to God NASCAR doesn’t change any rules, because if they do then it doesn’t matter,” he noted with a laugh. “But we want to figure things out, because we’re going to go to the same tracks … like we’ll go to Martinsville and Phoenix right off the bat next year after finishing there this year.

“If we can be good handling and get it right for next season, so when we start we can be good right off the bat, then I think we’ll really be able to put ourselves in a position to do some really cool things.”

– Brandon Jones is another driver not in the 12-driver postseason field after Friday’s Bristol battle that concluded the regular season, but he’s also coming up on a transition point in his career.

Jones will return to Joe Gibbs Racing next season, leaving JR Motorsports after two years and a disappointing tenure that hasn’t included any wins to this point.

The Food City 300, however, marked one of Jones’ better races this season. In a must-win situation to try and make the playoffs, Jones climbed as high as second at one point and averaged a seventh-place running position over the 300-lap affair.

He was one of just six drivers to post a driver rating of 100 or more, but struggled to make passes late and had to settle for sixth – though he did get a “career highlight” late by driving around his boss, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“He made a little bobble trying to pass [Ryan Truex for fifth] and that opened the door for me to get him,” explained Jones. “Not going to lie, that was really cool. …

“The top [groove] just got so dominant that the bottom kind of came out of question a little bit for us at the end. I was better than the 20 car [Truex] at the end. I just wasn’t good enough to pass him. I think if I’d ever gotten in front of him, I would’ve pulled away. But you just have to be so much better right now with this configuration to make a move and pass that it’s really difficult late in these Bristol races.”

The next track on the schedule, Kansas Speedway, is a track where Jones won two straight Xfinity Series races in 2019 and 2020 with Joe Gibbs Racing.

He’s eager to return there and, hopefully, deliver JRM a parting gift by putting the No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro into victory lane.

“Kansas next week is one of my best racetracks,” he said. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t go win there. I think that’s the goal still, is just to go win a race and leave JR Motorsports a winner.”

Riley Herbst in action at Bristol Motor Speedway Friday night. (Jacob Seelman photo)

– Riley Herbst sat on pit wall after the end of Friday night’s race hunched over, wondering what he could have done differently to be closer to his race-winning teammate Cole Custer.

The driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang limped to the end of the regular season, with five finishes of 13th or worse in the six races since he won at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July, including a nondescript 13th-place run at Bristol.

He’s hoping for a performance improvement going into the playoffs, in order to give Stewart-Haas Racing two legitimate shots at a championship on the team’s way out of the Xfinity Series.

"I guess it’s good for Stewart-Haas Racing with Cole being in victory lane. That was cool to see,” Herbst said. “It’s good for us, but we just missed it tonight. I don’t know. We weren’t good in practice and didn’t qualify well, and then we didn’t have much pace in the race, either. It’s really puzzling.

“I feel like when we execute, we’re one of the fastest teams for sure, but tonight wasn’t one of those nights. We’ll have to figure out why and what I need better, but we’ll go to work,” he added. “I think we’ll be really competitive in the playoffs. I’m excited for it, and hopefully, we can step up to the plate​.​”

The NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs begin at Kansas Speedway with the running of the Kansas Lottery 300, the opening race of the Round of 12. Broadcast coverage is slated for Saturday, Sept. 28 at 4 p.m. ET, live on CW Network, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.