Getty Brandon Jones has a win at a one-mile track.
The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Supra is about to take on Portland International Raceway for the first time in his NASCAR career. Brandon Jones has no previous experience at the road course, but he is ready to shock some fans with a strong performance.
“Kind of thought, when I first saw [PIR], ‘I don’t know. Another road course. There’s a bunch of them,'” Jones told Heavy ahead of the trip to Oregon. “It’s something that I didn’t grow up doing or anything, and it’s something that I think all of us have really had to put a little extra work into to perfect. I’ve been doing a pretty good job on the virtual version, man. We’ve got a really good model at GT 12, our simulator that Toyota provides for us. And we’ve been wearing that thing out.”
Jones has not yet been to Portland International Raceway. He’s logged a considerable number of miles while working in the simulator, and he has tested out a variety of setups. Now he will head to the road course with a solid confidence level based on the virtual returns that he has seen.
ALL the latest NASCAR news straight to your inbox! Subscribe to the Heavy on NASCAR newsletter here!
Sign up for the Heavy on NASCAR Newsletter!
“Yeah, man, I think that we’re gonna be pretty fast,” Jones continued. “I think we’re gonna shock a lot of people out there. Everything that we’ve been doing is in the right direction. So I’m looking forward to it.”
Road Courses Require Some Extra Preparation
GettyBrandon Jones has put in considerable effort to improve at road courses.
Jones has been a full-time Xfinity Series driver since the 2016 season when he drove the No. 33 for Richard Childress Racing. He moved over to Joe Gibbs Racing and the No. 19 team in 2018, and he has since secured five career wins.
Jones has not reached Victory Lane at the various road courses on the NASCAR schedule, but he has made improvements over the years while posting an average finish of 15.6. This includes top-five finishes at the Daytona Road Course, the Charlotte Roval, and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. These performances are the result of some serious work.
“For me, it was kind of about just reps, you know, just running a bunch of laps if I could no matter what it was at first,” Jones said. “And then I’ve been to a bunch of schools too, like trying to see what they say and just kind of take away advice from them.
“I mean, everything that I’ve done has obviously been like street cars and stuff. So it’s a little bit different, but they do a good job of teaching you weight transfer and what you should be looking for and what you should be feeling.”
Jones Has Embraced the New Tracks
NASCAR has made several changes to the schedule in the past few years. The sanctioning body moved the championship weekend to Phoenix Raceway and added new tracks in Portland International Raceway, Circuit of the Americas, Nashville Superspeedway, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course among others.
There have been mixed opinions about all of the changes. Some drivers have shied away from embracing the number of road courses while those in other series have made strong comments about the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track. Jones, for comparison, has focused on the positive aspects.
“I think that it’s fun to add some new stuff in there every once in a while,” Jones said. “I mean, you kind of get — I wouldn’t say in a rut — but you get in a rhythm of all these same places over and over again. So to kind of add something new in there to kind of figure out is pretty cool. It’s pretty difficult.
“It’s almost like Late Model racing a little bit like where you used to go all over the country and you pick and choose where you wanted to go. And sometimes you end up at places that you’ve never been to or never even seen for that fact. So I like the discovery of the new stuff to try to figure it out.”
Another interesting side effect of the schedule changes is the altered schedule. The teams and drivers have to deal with some major changes to their respective weeks while accounting for travel across the country, time zone changes, and extra laps in the simulator.
Jones started his week off by taking part in a Memorial Day tradition. He did the Hero workout Murph on May 30, had a competition meeting on May 31, put in some time on the simulator on June 1, and then prepared for the cross-country trip to Oregon. Jones also headed to Millbridge Speedway to mix up his schedule.
Now that all the work is complete, he will head to a new track and prepare for practice. He will see if the previous simulator work will translate to the racing surface, and then he will pursue the first road course win of his Xfinity Series career.
READ NEXT: Parker Kligerman Sets Return to Cup Series Action