McLeod x Braden Makes Big Splash with Erik Jones at Pensacola

It’s the final break of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season and BJ McLeod and Erik Jones could have chosen to go anywhere in the world. Naturally, they spent it at a race track.

Of course, there’s a beach about 15 miles south of Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida and that certainly helps, but this wasn’t a vacation.

“It helps that I have a wife that’s all about this,” McLeod said. “It’s the same for Erik too. We’re racers man, and we want to race. We would race shopping carts if that’s all we had available to us this weekend, but we have something a little bit cooler to play with instead.”

Indeed, they rendezvoused with Travis Braden, who has spent much of the summer thrashing to get a brand-new FURY chassis completed after launching a new organization with McLeod — BJ McLeod Motorsports with Travis Braden.

Jones was named the inaugural pilot of a No. 78 designed like its Xfinity Series counterpart.

This is the same Jones, by the way, who broke into the national spotlight with back-to-back Snowball Derby triumphs in 2012-13 but hadn’t raced on the Florida Gulf Coast since December 2014.

Breaking in a completely new race car at a relatively obscure short track is how the McLeod x Braden Motorsports trio and their families chose to spend a precious weekend not on the NASCAR grind.

The new team was conceived over the winter when Braden somewhat found himself at a career crossroads. At 27 years old, Braden is still holding onto NASCAR ambitions but also sees an opportunity to establish a lasting short track legacy.

Enter McLeod, who has spent the last several years expanding his NASCAR footprint, while also pondering a return to short track roots planted in Central Florida.

People forget that McLeod won a World Series of Asphalt championship at New Smyrna Speedway with current Truck Series crew chief Rich Lushes.

In Braden, McLeod saw a little bit of himself and Braden saw a version of what he wants to become.

There was an immediate synergy.

“Unfortunately, we both kind of reached the conclusion that there was an oversaturation in the driver market right now, but we started talking about Super Late Models and how much passion we had for them,” Braden said.

“He talked about how he wished he didn’t have to abandon that when he got focused on NASCAR. I told that I would always want to be involved too, even if I could put something together for NASCAR, and one thing led to the other.”

Before long, Braden and McLeod had talked themselves into the foundation of a driver development program that would also let them occasionally race and stay connected to a discipline they both love.

“We don’t necessarily have the same background, but he is in a very similar place that I was about 10 years ago or so,” McLeod said. “What he and Jess (Ballard) are trying to build is similar to what my wife Jessica and I have worked towards.”

In addition to his connections with several NASCAR organizations and the inherent spotlight it provides, McLeod could also provide a shop in North Carolina and a hauler to transport the car across the country. Braden was building said car and had the equipment needed to maintain it.

Together, they had an entire race team.

That’s not to say it was easy, even with their combined resources, because nothing has come easy over the past 18 months … for anyone.

Constructing the car took longer than it should have due to a national parts shortage resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Once the car was completed, it was impossible to get the car on track for a test session because of the Hoosier tire shortage.

The easiest part was actually getting Jones behind the steering wheel.

Jones hasn’t spent much time in a Super Late Model since advancing to the Cup Series in 2015. It wasn’t for a lack of desire, but like McLeod and Braden have suggested, it’s just difficult to give a professional short track program the attention it warrants when you’re trying to survive at the highest level of the discipline.

But Jones was a surprising choice because he and Braden conducted several battles over the years in short tracks across the Midwest and weren’t particularly close. They weren’t rivals or anything like that, but they just didn’t run in the same social circles.

Their most famous battle arguably came in the 2014 Winchester 400 when they traded bump and runs that ended with Jones in Victory Lane for the second consecutive year. Braden finally earned his own Winchester rifle in 2016.

“So get this,” Braden said. “I’m pulling out of the track that night after tech and the first phone call I got was from Erik Jones telling me congratulations and he knew how much I wanted that one. I didn’t have his number but he found some way to get a hold of me, and that meant a lot to me.

“He has always been a very competitive but respectful competitor and I was thrilled to do this with him.”

It wasn’t until Braden moved to North Carolina last year that Jones invited him and Ballard to Monster Jam and dinner.

When Braden wanted to make a splash with his new team, and he realized the car would be ready for the final break of the Cup Series season, who has a better recent Super Late Model resume at Five Flags Speedway than Jones?

“We let BJ handle the communication aspect, but Erik was all in,” Braden said. “Obviously, he’s a great driver and he made it really easy for us — especially since he was testing this brand-new car on older tires.

“That was important to us, because this wasn’t the time to have a driver nitpicking over something like a seat being a half degree off or something like that. Total professional who just got the car where it needed to be.”

If not for a cut tire on Friday night in the closing laps, Jones would have posted top-5s on both nights against two of the deepest fields of the season in races won by Bubba Pollard and Chandler Smith.

“The racing here has changed so much since I was here last,” Jones said. “There isn’t much fall off and the pace is so much quicker than what it used to be. There isn’t as much saving anymore. To get a top five with these guys in their first time out, I think everyone’s happy with it.”

They absolutely were.

So, it begs the question, is this the McLeod x Braden combination for the Snowball Derby in December?

“I don’t know,” Jones said. “I definitely want to come back here in December. I love the Snowball Derby and this race has meant a lot to me personally and professionally, but I know Travis wants to get in the car some too.”

So maybe Braden is the driver for December, trying to match Jones as a two-time winner?

“We haven’t looked too far ahead yet,” Braden said. “Obviously, we would love to come here, one car, but someday as a multi-car team too. That’s the dream.

“I would love to race this car in December, and we have a couple of partners, but need a little bit more to make it happen. But really, we were rushing just to get the car ready for this weekend and were just 100 percent focused on making sure it was ready for Erik.

“I was thinking about what we’re doing next because it’s the week where I haven’t even worked on this car in a long time, so it’s like, what am I doing on Monday?”

Don’t be surprised to see McLeod end up in the car at some point, too, because what’s the point on having the skulls and a No. 78 Super Late Model if he can’t drive it, too.

“I will definitely drive a Super Late again,” McLeod said. “I haven’t picked the when just because our main focus was making sure we ran good from the start and Erik was our best chance. He said ‘yes’ and I didn’t even think twice about it.

“Hopefully he will want to drive it again, and we’d love for that to happen too. But I will definitely be back in a Super Late Model at some point. I just don’t know when.”

“This hits on all cylinders,” Braden said. “It’s a great marketing platform. BJ thinks race cars are cool in the same ways I do. I believe in our ability to work with younger drivers and prepare them for everything they’ll need to go NASCAR racing.

“We’re located in Charlotte with a NASCAR team, their people and assets. And then there is what we were able to do with Erik, getting his fans to come out to a short track and support this kind of racing. It’s a great tool to do all these different things.”

It’s even a great way to vacation, if you really want to call it that.

If you like what you read here, become a Short Track Scene Patreon and support short track journalism!

Read more Short Track Scene:

• What’s the Difference Between a Super Late Model and a Late Model Stock?
• The Latest on the Hoosier Tire Shortage
• Why Superstar Racing Experience Delivered for the Short Track Community