Erik Jones is first non-Cup driver to win in Xfinity in 2016
Hey, a driver who isn’t a Sprint Cup Series regular won Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Bristol.
Though we can’t claim it was much of an upset. Race-winner Erik Jones was the preseason title favorite after all. And he drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, the team that’s won four races (through Kyle Busch) and seen its three cars finish in the top 10 17 of a possible 21 times this season.
Jones made his race-winning pass on a Sprint Cup Series driver. That driver is Kyle Larson, and then Jones held off Busch for the win. By winning the race, Jones is essentially locked in to making the 12-driver Xfinity Series Chase in its inaugural season. Given that it took seven races for an Xfinity Series regular to win a race, there are better odds of you becoming a NASCAR regular than of 13 or more Xfinity drivers winning a race before the Chase begins.
Saturday was also the first day that the Xfinity Series ran heat races before the main race. The two races were not dramatic, as we predicted earlier in the week. There were no lead changes or cautions in either race and the Dash 4 Cash promotion didn’t even provide any drama. The top two Xfinity Series regulars in each heat were eligible for the promotion and the Dash 4 Cash spots ended up going to each of the two Xfinity drivers that were the highest qualifiers in their heats.
The heat races are back next week at Richmond. Maybe we’ll see a lead change there.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
