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WATCH: How Brandon Jones Avoided Crashing into Ross Chastain and Denny Hamlin

Published 09/06/2020, 8:45 AM EDT

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There is a reason why the Darlington Raceway has earned the nickname, “Too Tough To Tame”. During the NASCAR Xfinity race, the two race leaders collided and took each other out of the race. Meanwhile, third-placed man, Brandon Jones was not about to turn down an open invitation and dove low to take the lead and win.

In the final 10 laps of the Xfinity race, Ross Chastain and Denny Hamlin engaged in a massive dogfight. Unfortunately, they got a little too close to each other and paid a hefty price. Owing to this, they practically gift-wrapped the win for Jones and handed him his third win of the season.

Fortunately, the two were able to continue, though Chastain finished 2nd. Meanwhile Hamlin ended up behind Ryan Sieg and rookie driver Riley Herbst, to complete the top five.

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“This is a tough place to get around and man, just smart in the head I think today, I think that’s what got ’em,” Jones said, “I saw they were really racing hard and I knew I was catching them and we knew he (Hamlin) was gonna pull that big slider.”

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How did the incident unfold ahead of Brandon Jones?

Chastain was fortunate that 2nd place was enough to put him in a good position in the Xfinity Series Playoffs. He admitted that Hamlin was a lot faster, and Chastain was lucky to just try and keep him honest.

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It is worth noting that Denny Hamlin started last, but managed to win both stages, despite a slow pit stop. According to him, he spotted an opportunity and took it. Unfortunately, Hamlin carried too much speed into Turn 3 and a collision was unavoidable.

Initially, Hamlin’s biggest threat was Chase Briscoe, until he spun out and hit the wall, with 30 laps remaining. Meanwhile, all that Jones could do was keep his nose clean and his head down.

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Written by:

Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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