Jones Wins Thrilling Cuervo 300 at Chicagoland Speedway

Brandon Jones Celebrates with a Burnout After Winning Chicagoland! (Riley Ogle | Motorsports Today)

JOLIET, I.L. - The NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series returned to Chicagoland Speedway for the Cuervo 300. This marked the first time the series hit the 1.5 mile track for first time since 2019, Saturday, July 4. Prior to the race Friday, practice was rained out resulting with it being moved to Saturday, and qualifying being canceled. Virtue of the metric, young sensation Connor Zilisch earned of JR Motorsports earned the pole. Zilisch had a great day, but at the end of 300 miles, in which the start of the race was also five hours due to rain, Brandon Jones earned the win.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

Connor ZIlisch dominated the opening stage leading every lap along the way. Unfortunately for Connor, that would be the highlight of his night. During the stage break, Zilisch's car came to a halt as he ran out of fuel, causing him to restart stage two in 26th. Zilisch rebounded to 9th at the end of stage two, but stage three was filled with frustration for the young phenom.

In the closing stage, Zilisch didn't spin out once, but rather twice causing him to lose track position and bring out two cautions. Somehow some way, Zilisch rebounded back for a 10th place finish, but never got into the mix for the win after running out of gas.

As for the stage two winner, Chase Elliott, who also joined Zilisch as two of four drivers running both the O'Reilly and NASCAR Cup Series races this weekend, dominated the stage. Despite Elliott's concerns entering the weekend about being slow getting up to speed, Elliott was anything but slow on early runs.

His #88 Hendrick Cars Chevorlet was incredibly fast on restarts allowing him to be in the mix late. For Elliott, he continued to be a factor in the final stage and came just shy of winning needing perhaps one more lap to catch Brandon Jones.

As for Jones, it was a day filled with climbing a mountain that resulted with him reaching the peak when it mattered most. Jones started the race 29th after Sonoma troubles the weekend previous hurt his average on the metric. Jones climbed through the field, one stop at a time. While he didn't earn points in stage one, he earned 6th in stage two. Jones remained a mainstay in the top five in stage three, proving the car had big time pace.

Though Jones was in the mix, he was not the favorite in the closing laps. That nod went to his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Taylor Gray who won the race out of pit road at the start of the third stage and showed really strong long run pace. Unfortunately for Gray, the race got away on the penultimate restart where he faded back to 5th after losing the lead in a four wide effort entering turn one despite being the control car. Gray finished the race 7th.

Chase Elliott took the lead on that restart, but Jones put himself in the ideal position as that restart allowed him to take the front row for the Green White Checkered.

On the final restart, Jones started to Elliott's inside and the two raced door to door until Jones prevailed in turn four. Down the backstretch on the white flag, Elliott got a run and took a dive low, but the momentum was in Jones favor allowing him to remain clear uncontested out of turn four. Jones picked up his first victory of 2026 at Chicagoland.

Other Notables:

Series points leader Justin Allagaier had a rebounding day similar to Connor Zilisch but found himself in a bad situation for a completely different matter. During the pit stops after the conclusion of the second stage, one of Allgaier's tire catchers had their footstep over the line of the open wall resulting in NASCAR deeming a safety violation. Allgaier didn't have to pass as many cars as Zilisch, but the Illinois native rebounded for a 6th place result.

Brent Crews had an up and down day compared to his JGR teammates, but rebounded with a strong 4th place finish. What people will be talking about though won't be the finish for Crews but rather an incident in the third stage.

On lap 165, Crews got into the backend of his teammate William Sawalich sending him for a spin down the backstretch bringing out the caution. The spin for Sawalich resulted in the #18 having flat tires on the way back to pit lane, causing him to lose a lap.

Sawalich was frustrated with Crews insisting the team look back at the replay multiple times. But the two did not conversate on pit road post race. It seems it will rather be a tough conversation that will happen in the middle of the week.

The last big notable of the race goes to Peterson Racing and Nick Sanchez, who had a 12th place finish, his best with the team and his best finish since Atlanta back in February. Sanchez spent the two weekends prior watching on the sidelines as Austin Green drove the car at the San Diego Street Course and Sonoma. The finish marked the team's best result on a intermediate track this season.

UP NEXT:

The NASAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series charges hard to EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta, G.A. for the fourth to final race of the 2026 regular season. Back in February, it was Haas Factory Team's Sheldon Creed pulling off the stunning victory, earning the first win of his O'Reilly career. The race will be ran Saturday, July 11, at 7:00 P.M. ET. Coverage can be found on the CW.

As for the weekend, all thats left to run at Chicagoland Speedway is the main course for the weekend. That being the NASCAR Cup Series, who races the Eero 400, with the green flag slated for 6:00 P.M. ET. Coverage for the race can be found on both TNT and MRN.