Loop Data Box Score : Darlington Raceway

• Thursday, April 3rd, 2025
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

Xfinity Series competitors prepare for The Track Too Tough To Tame

If there’s ever a venue poised to bring its A-game action following last week’s Martinsville (Va.) Speedway thriller, the NASCAR Xfinity Series should be in good shape with Saturday’s Sports Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway.

The venerable 1.366-mile track has a fantastic history of high-drama and important races.

Reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, Justin Allgaier shows up at Darlington with the championship lead by 41 points over Haas Factory Team driver Sam Mayer in second and 47 points over Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill in third, who collected his second win of the season last Saturday and joins Allgaier as the only multiple winners this season.

Sixth in the championship is 18-year-old Connor Zilisch, driver of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, who announced Thursday he will make his second NASCAR Cup Series start for Trackhouse Racing at Charlotte’s Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend.

The last five Darlington Xfinity Series races have been won by five different drivers. Allgaier is the defending spring race winner and his three trophies at The Track to Tough Tame is most among full-timers. He is on an eight-race streak of top-10 finishes at Darlington – one away from matching NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin’s record.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones (2020) is the only other fulltime series driver with a Darlington victory. Last year, Allgaier beat Hill to the checkered by a full 3.4-seconds. And Mayer was fourth. RCR has never won an Xfinity Series race at Darlington, but has five runner-up finishes – two from Hill.

Of note, the Stage 1 winner has gone on to win four of the last five races at the track.

The series is coming off an emotionally-charged short track event at Martinsville, where Hill led only the last lap to claim the win – surging forward after aggressive contact between race leaders Joe Gibbs Racing’s Taylor Gray and JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith derailed their days.

Both Gray and Smith were subsequently penalized this week for actions at Martinsville – after the race (Gray) and for contact during the race (Smith).

A handful of NASCAR Cup Series drivers will be on the Xfinity Series grid this week, including Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain and Christopher Bell, who won the Fall Darlington NASCAR Xfinity Series race from the pole position.

• Darlington Raceway
• Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200
• Pole Winner: Christopher Bell
• Age: 30
• Team : No 19 - Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota
• Owner: Joe Gibbs
• Crew Chief: Seth Chavka
• Christopher Bell won the Pole Award for the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 with a lap of 29911 seconds, 164408 mph
• This is his 14th pole in 80 NASCAR Xfinity Series races
• This is his first pole and first top-10 start in 2025
• This is his second pole in five races at Darlington Raceway
• Brandon Jones (second) posted his fourth top-10 start of 2025 and his eighth in 15 races at Darlington Raceway
• Justin Allgaier (third) posted his 13th top-10 start at Darlington Raceway It is his seventh in eight races this season
• Taylor Gray (fourth) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Saturday, April 5th, 2025
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

Brandon Jones Breaks 98-Race Drought With Victory at Darlington

After diligently working through a 98-race winless streak over the last three NASCAR Xfinity Series seasons, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones reminded his competitors — and his fans — Saturday that he’s still a race winner and a title contender.

The well-liked 28-year-old Atlanta native took the lead on a re-start with 12 laps remaining in Saturday’s Sports Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 at the historic Darlington (S.C.) Raceway – beating 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott to the finish line by a healthy 1.105-seconds to hoist his first trophy since April, 2022 — a span of 98 races.

The 1.366-mile Darlington track may be nicknamed Too Tough To Tame, but it certainly presented a tamer race than the series produced a week ago on the typically wild and wooly Martinsville half-miler. This weekend featured 14 lead changes among nine drivers – none of the changes up front a result of overly aggressive driving.

Instead, strategy, a fast car and unwavering belief in himself and his team made the difference for Jones.

“It’s nice for my confidence, right, but it’s also to prove to the haters and people that said I was incapable of doing it, wrong again,’’ said Jones, whose No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 24 of the races 137 laps.

“This place is freaking awesome man, I love coming to Darlington, ‘’ he added, “Second win and just huge momentum. I knew we were on a high just didn’t know when it was going to happen.’’

Justin Allgaier, who led the most laps (56) on the afternoon and won Stage 2, finished third in the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, followed by teammates Ross Chastain and rookie Carson Kvapil. The team, co-owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller, had all five of its Chevys in the top 10 with rookie Connor Zilisch finishing sixth and Sammy Smith ninth.

Rookies punctuated the top 10 despite it being the first time most of them had ever raced at the famously challenging venue. In addition to Kvapil and Zilisch, rookies Christian Eckes and Nick Sanchez claimed seventh and eighth place with Smith and veteran Sheldon Creed rounding out the top 10.

Harrison Burton’s AM Racing team won the opening stage and JGR’s Taylor Gray was credited with the Xfinity Fastest Lap (160.706 mph) of the day.

“I am proud of Brandon Jones, I know how hard the kid has worked, he’s done a good job and I’m happy to see him get to victory lane’’ said the reigning series champion Allgaier, who has now tied NASCAR Hall-of-Famer Mark Martin with nine-consecutive top 10s in Xfinity Series races at Darlington.

It’s been that kind of year for Allgaier. He’s finished top 10 in six of the last seven races of 2025, including back-to-back victories at Las Vegas and Homestead-Miami in March and a runner-up finish at Atlanta in February.

“Disappointed,’’ Allgaier conceded of his Darlington day, however, noting his Chevy’s speed was good and the team overcame an early race pit road miscue.

“We were able to get the track position back, at least for the most part. But clean air was too important today. When we were up front, we had it. But I really needed the long runs and just didn’t have that at the end of the race today. Proud of everybody on our BRANDT Chemical Chevrolet. We’re on a heckuva run with top fives right now.’’

The series’ popular Dash 4 Cash incentive program returns with next week’s SciApps 300 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (5 p.m. ET, The CW Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The highest finisher among Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill, Haas Factory Team’s Creed, Allgaier and Alpha Prime Racing’s Brennan Poole will win the Dash 4 Cash $100,000 bonus check from Xfinity, having earning eligibility based on their results in the Martinsville (Va.) Speedway race last week.

Next week marks the first spring race at Bristol since 2019. Christopher Bell was the race winner.

• Drivers Entered: 40 (2 drivers will not make the race)
• Laps Scheduled: 147
• Margin of Victory: 01.105 Seconds
• Time of Race: 1 Hours 54 Minutes 57 Seconds
• Average Speed: 104.812
• Cautions: 6 for 36 laps
• Lead Changes: 14
• Green Flag Passes: 1,297 (11.7 passes per green flag lap)

• Darlington Raceway
• Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200
• Race Winner: Brandon Jones
• Age: 28
• Team : No 20 - Menards/Turtle Wax Toyota
• Owner: Joe Gibbs
• Crew Chief: Samuel McAulay
• Brandon Jones won the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200, his sixth victory in 310 Xfinity Series races
• This is his first victory and fourth top-10 finish in 2025
• This is his second victory and seventh top-10 finish in 15 races at Darlington Raceway
• Chase Elliott (second) posted his fourth top-10 finish in five races at Darlington Raceway It is his first top-10 finish in 2025
• Justin Allgaier (third) posted his 16th top-10 finish in 20 races at Darlington Raceway
• Carson Kvapil (fifth) was the highest finishing rookie
• Justin Allgaier leads the point standings by 71 points over Sam Mayer