By Andy Walter

DOVER — Brandon Jones said there’s nothing like winning to breed more winning.

The 25-year-old NASCAR Xfinity driver said his victory at Martinsville on April 8 changed his team’s outlook on life.

“It just loosens everybody up,” said Jones. “It changes your mindset coming into a weekend like this.”

On Friday afternoon, Jones kept his momentum going, picking up the pole in Xfinity qualifying at Dover Motor Speedway.

He’ll start up front in the A-GAME 200, which is slated for 1:30 p.m. today.
Jones admitted he wasn’t expecting to see his qualifying speed of 157.398 mph on the Monster Mile.

“I didn’t really know what to expect number-wise. But that was certainly was a really fast lap.”

This was the second pole in 12 all-time starts for Jones, who is currently fifth in the season point standings.

Sam Mayer will start second in Saturday’s race with Noah Gragson qualifying third.

Current points leader A.J. Allmendinger will start eighth in Saturday’s race.

Cup time

NASCAR’s cup drivers will hit the Monster Mile on Saturday morning. Practices is slated for 10:30 a.m. with qualifying to follow at 11:05 for Sunday’s DuraMAX Drydene 400 Cup Series race.

Of the 103 all-time NASCAR Cup Series races at Dover, there have been 42 different pole winners .

Hall of Famer David Pearson leads the series in poles here with six (1969, 1973 sweep, 1974, 1975, 1981). Denny Hamlin leads all active series drivers in Dover poles with four (2012, 2013, 2015, 2019).

Only seven of the 42 NASCAR Cup Series Dover pole winners are active this weekend.

Gray gets ARCA win

Taylor Gray grabbed the momentum his race team was seeking in a big way Friday.

And his reward was a new Monster Trophy to display.

Gray led 115 of 125 laps and cruised to his first win at Dover with a victory in the General Tire 125 ARCA Menards Series East race.

It was the first ARCA Menards Series East victory of the year for Gray, 17, a New Mexico native, who has also made two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts this year.

Gray has top-three finishes in all three AMSE races so far in 2022.

“Hard work has paid off, finally,” Gray said. “We’ll take this momentum and go to Nashville (next race in series is May 7) and see what we can do. We’ve been working hard and making gains.”

Gray topped second-place Jesse Love by 1.456 seconds at the checkered flag, with Conner Jones in third and Rajah Caruth in fourth.

Gray earned the pole position with a track record lap of 160.915 mph earlier on Friday. After capping a long day at Dover with a big victory, Gray already has a place in mind to keep his newly-won Monster Trophy.

“It’s a super cool trophy, probably one of my favorite trophies on the circuit,” Gray said. “It’s probably going to go right in my living room.”

Firefighters to be honored

Clayton fire chief John Pridemore and three Baltimore firefighters who died last month will be honored before Sunday’s Cup race.

The three firefighters from Baltimore are Lt. Paul Butrim, Lt. Kelsey Sadler and Kenny Lacayo. The three died in the line of duty on Jan. 24 after a vacant home partially collapsed with them inside.

Butrim regularly attended races in Dover.

Pitbull on board

Ross Chastain had time to smash a watermelon in victory lane last weekend but he missed the call from business partner, Pitbull.

The performer called Chastain just after the race but never got through to the 29-year-old driver. Chastain had to settle for texting Pitbull on Monday.

“Justin got to talk with him, but I was too busy jumping around hugging everyone and doing the victory lane stuff,” said Chastain. “I really want him here in victory lane with us someday soon.”

On Sunday, Chastain’s car will have paint scheme based on Pitbull and Zac Brown’s song, ‘Can’t Stop US Now.’

“Who would have ever thought I would be teaming up with Pitbull?” said Chastain. “That is so cool and shows how interesting life really is. He is such a motivator, we want to really do well for him Sunday. I hope we play ‘Can’t Stop Us Now’ in victory lane at Dover.”

Pit stops

In 13 Dover starts, Kyle Larson has 12 top-12 finishes with 880 laps led — the most he’s led at any track. ... Chase Elliott owns a 21-point lead in the Cup standings, making the sixth week in a row that he’s been No. 1 in points. ... Former baseball standout Johnny Damon, now the board chairman for title sponsor A-GAME, will be the grand marshal for the Xfinity race today. ... Jexxa, a singer/songwriter from Bear, will sing the national anthem.

Sports editor Andy Walter can be reached at 302-741-8227 or walter@iniusa.org.

Follow on Twitter at @DSNSports.