DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – When Brandon Brown climbed out of his No. 68 Brandonbilt Motorsports Chevrolet after finishing fourth in Friday night’s (Aug. 26) NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway, he slumped over the roof of his car, helmet and HANS device still on his head. Dejected.
Then, Brown released a loud, angry F-bomb that was heard above all the roaring crowd and pit road post-race flurry. With all the surrounding eyes now on him, he took off his helmet and dropped another bombardment of the dreaded consonant before slamming the safety equipment down in frustration.
After a year’s worth of work, Brown was close to qualifying himself into the Xfinity playoffs at Daytona, but more than that, he was one lap short from keeping his full-time status as a race car driver alive. He finished fourth rather than what could’ve been the biggest career-saving win of the year.
And now, what comes next for 28-year-old is a mystery. Again.
Brown told Fronstretch on July 26 it was likely he would not be returning to race at BMS full-time for the rest of 2022 as a result of lacking sponsorship. The team was going to be utilizing other drivers with sponsorship to drive the car, while Brown was left to fend for other less-funded rides with different teams.
However, in one of his last three scheduled races with BMS at Daytona, Brown had a unique opportunity to keep his full-time status with his No. 68 team alive. If he could qualify himself into the playoffs, he would likely be able to stay with his tried-and-true BMS race team.
All he had to do was win.
“There’s so much riding on this race,” Brown told Frontstretch before Friday night’s 100-lap event. “Fingers crossed that we get in. Just try and win tonight and then focus everything on doing the best we can for this season.”
And he got close.
In typical Daytona fashion, Brown had to dodge what was a constantly increasing attrition rate of cars. Cautions bred cautions, and at the high-banked 2.5-mile oval these cautions were almost always from big crashes. With the onslaught of late-race yellows, it’s no wonder the event ended with three overtime restarts.
In fact, Brown was in one of them.
The Big One strikes at @DAYTONA! #NASCAR | #NASCARAfterDark | @USA_Network pic.twitter.com/xF9IWXqYUK
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 27, 2022
Yet despite…
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