JOLIET, Ill. — Stealing the lead from Chase Elliott on the final restart, Brandon Jones celebrated NASCAR‘s return to Chicagoland Speedway with a dramatic victory in Saturday night‘s rain-delayed Cuervo 300.
In the first O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series race to require overtime this season, Jones‘ No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota stayed side-by-side with Elliott‘s No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet through the first two corners on the decisive Lap 200 restart.
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Jones took control in Turn 3 on the white-flag lap. Elliott made a determined run at the top of the track on the final circuit, but Jones blocked the lane and crossed the finish line 0.171 seconds ahead of the 2020 Cup Series champion.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Chicagoland
“It‘s been an up-and-down year,” Jones said after climbing from his car. “We had some success early on. We‘ve been in a little rut the last couple weeks, so it‘s just nice to do it like we did today. We had to earn that one.”
The victory was Jones‘ first at Chicagoland (which hosted its first race since 2019), his first of the 2026 season and the eighth of his career, and he achieved it by outrunning an elite Cup Series driver.
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“I think it says a lot about how resilient we are and how hard we‘re working out there,” Jones said. “Chase made it really difficult on me. He‘s one of the best in the sport. We were on old tires, and that was a blast, sliding around and dueling it out like that.”
Elliott chose the top lane for the final restart and didn‘t get the push he needed from third-place finisher Jesse Love, the culprit being well-worn tires.
“I don‘t think that was why we lost by any means,” Elliott said. “I know he was planning on giving me a good push … We ended up kind of having the momentum going the wrong way into Turn 3. I tried to drive in way hard and got myself super tight.
“Credit to Brandon. He did a good job. He had a good restart, stayed side-by-side through 1 and 2 and had the momentum going his way into Turn 3. I got myself in a bad spot and paid the price.”
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Austin Hill finished fifth behind Love and rookie Brent Crews.
For JGR teammates Crews and Taylor Gray, the race was eminently productive in the battle for positions in the postseason Chase. Gray led 55 laps — second only to Elliott‘s 78 — and ended the evening seventh in the race and 11th in the standings with a 52-point cushion above the current Chase cutline.
Crews is 12th, the final Chase-eligible position, with a 44-point margin over teammate William Sawalich, the first driver below the current cutoff.
But Sawalich was seething after contact from Crews‘ front bumper sent him spinning through the infield grass on Lap 165 of a planned 200 to cause the fifth of seven cautions. Sawalich finished 29th and faces an uphill battle with only four races left before The Chase field is set.
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With qualifying canceled in favor of practice after rain wiped out O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series practice on Friday, Connor Zilisch started on the pole via the NASCAR Rule Book after a rain delay of more than four hours. He led the first stage wire-to-wire, finishing 4.935 seconds ahead of second-place Love.
Under caution, however, Zilisch‘s No. 1 JRM Chevrolet ran out of fuel and had to be pushed to pit road. Zilisch restarted Stage 2 in 26th place and climbed to ninth by the end of the stage on Lap 90.
Elliott was first off pit road during the first stage break and held the top spot through the end of Stage 2.
Zilisch‘s rotten luck continued after the break. He cut a tire after contact with the outside wall and started from the back once again, only to spin on Lap 156 and repeat the process. For a third time, he climbed through the field to finish 10th.
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Justin Allgaier, Zilisch‘s JRM teammate, had a similarly adventurous night. Allgaier started 17th and charged to fourth by the end of Stage 2. But a safety violation on pit road for an improperly uniformed crew member sent him to the rear for a restart at Lap 100.
Allgaier rallied to finish sixth and leaves Chicagoland with a 195-point series lead over second-place Love.
MORE: O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings
Behind Allgaier and Gray, Sam Mayer, Cole Custer and Zilisch completed the top 10. With Elliott, Allgaier and Zilisch in the top 10, JRM extended its streak of placing at least one car in the top 10 to 77 consecutive races, two short of RFK Racing‘s series record, set from 2008 through 2010.
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The O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series moves to EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta for next Saturday‘s Focused Health 250 (7 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Note: Inspection was completed in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage, confirming Jones as the Chicagoland winner. The Nos. 0 and 54 each had one lug nut not safe and secure, resulting in a loss of pit selection at EchoPark. Additionally, the Nos. 54, 88 and 99 will return to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for teardown inspection.
