Paige Jones delivered the final blow in a wild night of head-to-head barrel racing at the second-ever Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo, locking in the team championship for the Jokers alongside teammate Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi inside AT&T Stadium.
The unique format brought six drafted teams of rodeo athletes together in a bracket-style competition across roughstock, timed events and barrel racing. The setup felt more like drag racing than traditional rodeo, and the intensity matched the stakes. The Jokers walked away with the team title and a $27,778 payout for every athlete and coach on the roster, including coaches Joe Beaver and Sid Steiner.
Jones sealed the win with a final-round head-to-head victory over Jordon Briggs, whose earlier run had secured a barrel racing medal for Team Convoy, after Briggs earned a 5-second penalty for an early start to the pattern.
But it was the Jokers’ consistency—and Jones’ precision aboard her standout horse, Famous Hayday, or “Bazinga,”—that delivered the final shot.
“I know there’s other people counting on me in this setup, and I just knew Bazinga would go out there and get the job done,” Jones said. “It’s a tricky setup—two different sides of the arena, different sightlines, ground that was still settling—but I trusted him.”
Jones, who has spent the past several seasons selectively seasoning Bazinga, noted that his ability to stay square and balanced on all four feet made the difference when it came to handling uncertain conditions and a high-stakes environment.
“He runs real four-wheel-drive,” she said. “He’s just one of those horses who will find the barrels and stay put together, no matter the setup.”
Pozzi Tonozzi said she knew Jones was the right anchor when it mattered most.
“I knew Bazinga would stand up on that ground and do a great job,” Pozzi Tonozzi said. “I was excited to pass the reins to Paige and say, ‘This is all you.’”
After a win in the first leg of her tournament, Pozzi Tonozzi and her mount came up just short against Briggs and Arlo in the individual medal round. But thanks to wins across other rodeo disciplines, the Jokers still advanced to the overall championship shootout—setting the stage for Jones’ comeback and final-round performance.
Joe Beaver, who coached the Jokers alongside Steiner, brought decades of experience to the team format—and wasn’t shy about what it meant to see his crew bounce back after losing in the inaugural event.
“We got beat bad last time,” Beaver said. “This time, I told them—when I call on you, I need you to give me everything. No holding back. And they did.”
Beaver, who sees massive potential in the team format, called the head-to-head, single-elimination structure “pure offense.”
“It’s you versus one other person. If they slip and you stay clean, you advance,” he said. “We didn’t play it safe. We played to win.”
The barrel racing rounds offered no drag, no retries, and no room for error. Each matchup was decided by a stoplight start and electric-eye finish—plus five-second penalties for barrels or early starts. It was chaos by design, and Jones said it tested her focus like nothing else.
“I don’t usually get nervous, but before my run at Kid Rock’s event in Fort Worth earlier this year, I thought I was going to throw up,” she said. “It’s just so different. There’s a countdown clock, your team’s depending on you, the music’s going—it’s a rush.”
For Jones, who has spent the last six seasons building her name on Bazinga and a few select backup horses, the experience was both a celebration and a signal that the team-style approach might just have a real future in pro rodeo.
“We’re so used to doing this on our own,” she said. “But being back on a team again—it reminded me of high school nationals, junior rodeo days. We were all screaming for each other, back on the fences. I missed that.”
As for Bazinga, Jones said he thrives in big-moment settings.
“He wants the camera on, but he doesn’t want anybody near him,” she laughed. “He thrives under pressure, just like I do. I say pressure is a privilege—and I think he believes that, too.”
