Jones is a star in Texas again
FORT WORTH, Texas — Erik Jones skipped his high school graduation ceremony three years ago to compete in a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, where he was presented his actual diploma before the event.
Two years ago, he went to victory lane at Texas for the first time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
On Saturday, he won another Xfinity race at the 1 1/2-mile track, which was reconfigured in the first two turns and completely repaved earlier this year.
“Yeah, it’s been a good track for me,” Jones said. “The first time I came here, it’s funny, it really wasn’t that good to me, but after that it just kind of clicked and I’ve felt really good here ever since.”
Jones led 112 of 200 laps for his seventh career Xfinity victory. He finished a half-second ahead of Ryan Blaney, another full-time Cup Series driver and the second-place qualifier for today’s race. Blaney led 43 laps and went into his final pit stop in first before Jones went back in front for good on lap 156.
“We passed him before the last pit stop, and I thought our car was pretty decent right there. We didn’t come out with the lead, and that hurt us,” said Blaney, who added that even if he had held on to the lead, he wasn’t sure he could have held off Jones.
Only nine drivers finished on the lead lap. Kevin Harvick, the polesitter for today’s race, finished third but more than 21 seconds off the lead, ahead of Austin Dillon and Cole Custer. Darrell Wallace Jr. won the second stage of the race after Harvick won the first and overcame a spin 67 laps into the race to finish sixth.
Elliott Sadler kept the lead in the points standings after a 10th-place finish and was the first driver off the lead lap. But his gap over William Byron, who finished seventh and earned points in the first two stages, was trimmed from 17 to six.
Jones will run today’s Cup race in a backup car after crashing during practice Friday, and he’ll start 36th in the 40-car field. He was grateful for the experience — and the victory — he picked up Saturday.
“I always felt really comfortable on the old track here — I knew what I needed the car to do,” Jones said. “Honestly, the new surface here, I felt like I was able to get back to what the car needed. Definitely more challenging, too, on this surface than the old surface. A good day of learning.”