A caution with 28 of 300 laps remaining set up a tough decision for the lead-lap cars – to pit for new tires or not.
Gragson, who was running second, stayed out and inherited the lead while the rest of the lead-lap cars headed down pit road. Justin Allgaier, who was leading before the caution, came off pit road first but was flagged for a speeding penalty.
On the restart with 21 laps to go, Gragson quickly cleared for the lead and then spent the final three laps trying to keep Jones – who got to Gragson’s rear bumper several times – at bay. Gragson finally cleared him by 0.145 seconds for his third consecutive win.
The victory is a series-leading sixth for Gragson this season and the 11th of his career.
“That’s three in a row!” Gragson said. “That last caution came out and I knew if we continued to run the top (groove) it was going to be hard for them to get there. I appreciate Brandon Jones racing us clean. He got to my bumper with two to go. I was hanging on and scrubbing the fence.
“I won Bristol in 2020 and there were no fans here. This is 10 times cooler. You guys are awesome. Man, I’m just so thankful. Our car was fast all day. Once we got up to the top, we were rolling.
“I had a blast.”
Austin Hill finished third in the race, Sam Mayer was fourth and Riley Herbst rebounded from an early spin and rounded out the top-five.
Friday night’s race was the last of the Xfinity Series regular season. The playoffs kick off next weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.
A.J. Allmendinger clinched the regular season title with his sixth-place finish in the race, while Gragson will enter the playoffs as the No. 1 seed.
Joining Allmendinger in the playoffs will be Allgaier, Gragson, Ty Gibbs, Josh Berry, Austin Hill, Jones, Mayer, Herbst, Daniel Hemric, Ryan Sieg and Jeremy Clements.
Stage 3
Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, most of the lead-lap cars pit with Allgaier the first off pit road.
On the restart on Lap180, Bayley Currey and Joe Graf Jr. had stayed out and led the way followed by Allgaier.
Allgaier powered around both on the restart to reclaim the lead.
With 50 laps remaining, Allgaier had moved out to a more than 2.5-second lead over Gragson as Jones ran third, 3.8 seconds behind the leader.
On Lap 271, while Allgaier was trying to fend off Gragson, he split two lapped cars but ended up making contact with J.J. Yeley, who spun and hit the wall to bring out a caution.
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