Brandon Brown Has Reentered The Playoff Chat

Compared to other NASCAR Xfinity Series midfield drivers, Brandon Brown is having a quiet 2022.

Having a quiet start may not be something to complain about following the unfortunate politicization of his first career victory at Talladega Superspeedway last fall and the controversy following a botched sponsorship announcement with LGB coin.

Undoubtedly, Brown would rather be standing in victory lane every few races, but riding 2022 out quietly isn’t the worst thing in the world. The past will resurface if and when he finds himself in victory lane again. That is just the unfortunate nature of politics. But political realities aside, would you believe Brown is on the best four-race streak since his first career win at Talladega?

Well, he is.

Brown is riding a four-race streak of top-20 finishes, including the most recent two finishes being top 12s. He finished 15th at Texas Motor Speedway and 17th at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In the Xfinity Series’ first trip to Portland International Raceway, he finished 12th, and on Saturday (June 25) at Nashville Superspeedway, he placed 11th.

Compared to the four races before Texas, those results were worth stopping at a fancy Nashville steakhouse before driving back to the race shop.

Seven races into 2022, Brown was 12th in points, tied with Sheldon Creed, with the tiebreaker going to Creed. Brown had captured four top-13 finishes through the first seven races and was fresh off an eighth-place finish at Richmond Raceway, tying his career-best at the track.

But six days later, the race at Martinsville Speedway began a painful slide down the standings. Brown was flirting with the top 15 all race long at Martinsville but was involved in the massive pileup on lap 252. He finished 34th, which was his worst finish of the season to date.

The following week at Talladega, Brown was caught in another crash and finished 30th. The following week at Dover Motor Speedway, he spent most of the race outside the top 20 but finished 18th, a small victory after two weeks of heartache. But more heartache struck at Darlington Raceway, where Brown suffered engine troubles. He finished the race five laps down in 35th.

In four weeks, Brown went from effectively being one point out of the playoffs to 17th and 80 points below the cutoff line.

Since his run of top 20 finishes began at Texas, Brown has moved from 17th to 15th in points. And while he has only shaved six points off the margin between him and 12th place Ryan Sieg, he is only…