Brandon Jones started Saturday's Cuervo 300 at Chicagoland Speedway 29th in a 38-car field. He led 12 of its 201 laps. The last two were the ones that mattered.
The race was scheduled for 200 laps and needed 201. A caution with four laps left pushed the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series to its first overtime finish of the season, after 19 races without one, the longest such run to open a season in the series' history. On the Lap 200 restart, Jones's No. 20 Menards Toyota stayed side by side with Chase Elliott through the first two corners, took control in Turn 3 on the white-flag lap, and blocked Elliott's last run at the top of the track to win by 0.171 seconds. It was his eighth career series victory and his first of the season. "We've been in a little rut the last couple weeks, so it's just nice to do it like we did today," Jones said. "We had to earn that one."
Elliott, making his first O'Reilly Series start of the season in the JR Motorsports No. 88, led a race-high 78 laps, won the second stage, finished second, and collected zero points, which is what Cup Series drivers earn in this series no matter how the night goes. "Credit to Brandon. He did a good job," Elliott said. The fault he assigned to himself: "I got myself in a bad spot and paid the price." Connor Zilisch's first Chicagoland start in any series was busier: he started on the pole after Friday's rain wiped out practice, qualifying was scrapped to replace it, and the field was set on metrics, led the first stage wire to wire, ran out of fuel under caution at the stage break, cut a tire on the wall, spun, and worked back through the field to finish 10th. Between them, Elliott and Zilisch led 126 of the 201 laps and won both stages. Cole Custer, likewise ineligible, finished ninth. The trophy left with the man who started 29th.
It was the series' first visit to Chicagoland since 2019, run on the night of the Fourth of July after a rain delay of more than four hours, with a tequila brand as the entitlement sponsor, part of what NASCAR is calling the America250 Independence Day weekend. The Cup Series closed the weekend Sunday with a 0.276-second finish of its own.
The box score filled in around them: seven cautions for 40 laps, 16 lead changes among six drivers, and an infraction sheet with a dozen separate penalties for pitting before pit road was open. Team Stange Racing, a Chicago-based operation making its NASCAR debut, entered the No. 47 for Dawson Cram. The engine lasted 35 laps.
The championship barely moved. Justin Allgaier finished sixth and leads the standings by 195 points over Jesse Love, who finished third. Brent Crews, the rookie, started second and finished fourth. Austin Hill was fifth. And Chevrolet, which had won nine straight races in the series, watched the streak end behind a Menards Toyota that started 29th.
The O'Reilly Series races at Atlanta on Saturday. Wherever Jones qualifies, Joliet suggested the number is negotiable.