The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Race at Chicagoland ended in a dramatic showdown as the race was thrown into overtime. Despite the relentless pressure from Chase Elliott, it was Joe Gibbs Racing's Brandon Jones who emerged victorious. 

The race began after a five-hour rain delay, but as soon as the green flag dropped, it was Elliott who kept himself in the top five during stages 1 and 2 of the race, while Jones lurked just outside of it. During the final stage of the race, after multiple caution periods and switches for the lead, the battle for the win came down to those two.

For most of it, the two drivers battled side by side, but just as they were approaching the white flag, the Toyota driver dove under the Chevrolet driver to take the lead of the race. From there, Jones stayed ahead of Elliott, who had to settle for second place.

While talking in the post-race interview with CW, Jones expressed how happy he felt. He said (in a video of the interview shared by @NASCAROReillyAP on X): 

"I had to earn that one. Haven't had an exciting one like that in a long time. Thank you, guys, for sticking that one out through the rain and everything. It's been an up-and-down year. We've had some success early on; we've been in a little bit of a rut the last couple of weeks, so it's nice to do it like we did today. We really had to earn that one." 

While this marked Brandon Jones’ first victory of the season, it was his eighth career win in the NOAPS. Behind Jones and Elliott, it was Jesse Love who finished third while Brent Crews and Austin Hill placed fourth and fifth to complete the top five at Chicagoland Speedway. 

Brandon Jones opens up about his battle with Chase Elliott 

In the same interview, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver opened up about his intense battle with the JR Motorsports driver. He was questioned about how he felt to beat a NASCAR Cup Series champion to take home the win.

"It says a lot about just how resilient we are, and how hard we're working at this," said Jones. "Chase made it really difficult on me. He's one of the best in the sport, so I knew it was going to be difficult. We were all on old tires -- that was a blast to slide around and duel it out like that."

Jones led 12 of 201 laps of the race, while Elliott led 78. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver gave the team its third win of the season, and he advanced from eighth to sixth place in the O’Reilly drivers’ championship.

After 20 races, he has a 265-point deficit to the championship leader, JR Motorsports' Justin Allgaier.

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Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Yash Kotak