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Brandon Jones celebrated his first career ARCA Menards Series win at Winchester Speedway in 2014. (Jay Alley/ARCA Racing)

Looking Back: Winchester Sets Table For 2014 Title Race

www.arcaracing.com April 24, 2020

“Eight tires are better than four,” is a common – half-joking – refrain in short track racing, where real estate is at a premium and contact is expected.

With two young drivers battling for the first win in the closing laps of the 2014 Herr’s Chase The Taste 200 at Winchester Speedway, that phrase became a truism.

Brandon Jones slid the No. 4 Exide Batteries Chevrolet under race leader Mason Mitchell, pushing him up and out of the way in Turns 3 and 4, and leading the last segment of the last lap to claim the win. It was Jones’ first career start in the ARCA Menards Series.

RACING -REFERENCE: 2014 Herr’s Chase The Taste 200 Results

“I don’t really like to win ’em that way, but ya know first ARCA race,” said the then 17-year-old Jones. “Just had to go for it right there at the end.”

That Mitchell was able to keep his No. 5 Thermal Technology Services Patriotic Ford pointed in the right direction and salvage a runner-up finish was of small consolation at the time. Mitchell showed Jones his displeasure with a extended bumper nudge down the backstretch on the cool down lap.

RACING-REFERENCE: Brandon Jones | Mason Mitchell

Mitchell led a race-high 90 laps. More importantly, he finished three spots ahead of Grant Enfinger.

Mitchell would have to wait just seven days to get that first win. He led the final six laps to grab the Ansell ActivArmr 150 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Mitchell closed the season with five top five finishes in the last six races. Enfinger, meanwhile, had four finishes 15th or worse, including the final two races of the season.

RELATED: Setting The Scene: 2014 ARCA at Winchester

That allowed Mitchell to claim the 2014 ARCA title by 255 points over Enfinger, despite the latter’s series-high six wins.

Mitchell made 11 more ARCA starts between 2015-18, with two more wins in 2015, before stepping away from driving a race car.

Enfinger came back in 2015 and won the first three races of the season again and finished with six wins, this time easily outdistancing Austin Wayne Self, Josh Williams and Tom Hessert III for the championship.

Enfinger has moved up to the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, where he’s made the playoffs for each of the last two seasons. Jones moved full-time to the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2016 and has top 10 points finishes in three of his first four seasons.

Finishing sixth in the race was Justin Haley – known at the time as J.J. Haley – making his third career ARCA start as a 15-year-old.

RACING-REFERENCE: Grant Enfinger | Justin Haley

Two years later, Haley would win the NASCAR East championship and in 2019 he won the rain-shortened NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway.