By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Erik Jones was nearly the sport’s next spin-and-win in Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
After spinning his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on lap 16, Jones was on the comeback trail through most of the 334-lap race.
“I put us behind on the start getting myself in trouble and spinning out,” Jones said.
Suffering no damage, the Xfinity winner at Texas eventually found himself higher than ever, contending for the lead with teammates Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin.
When Busch broke loose in Turn 2, Jones pounced and grabbed the race lead for what was a 27-lap run out front. The mistake by Busch was what Jones
“I thought we were pretty equal, depending on who was out front,” he said of himself and Busch. “We could both run wide-open out front and had to lift behind each other.
“I knew he was loose and I was hoping if I kept the pressure on him that he would make a mistake. Fortunately, he did.”
The time out front lasted until a shortage on fuel held the No. 20 long on pit road during the race’s final round of stops under green. The slower stop was enough to surrender to lead to Hamlin, who went on to win.
“I was in a weird spot with fuel, we ended up needing to take more fuel on anyone else,” he said. “We lost the lead on that green-flag cycle.”
Jones finished fourth for the third straight time at Texas, scoring his first top-five finish since the season-opening Daytona 500 in February.
“It’s a good day but disappointing at the same time,” he said. “We know we a car that could have won and to not capitalize on that is frustrating. It’s also nice to get on track and have some good runs again.”
This good run was partially due to a slightly widened racetrack. Texas added a hefty layer of VHT to the second and third lanes of the speedway, giving drivers like Jones ample room to make some passes on their way back up the running order.
“I thought it was really a good addition,” he said. “It was a lot better than previous races here since the repave. You could go up there, I made some passes on the outside of [Turns] 1,2 today and 3 and 4. I thought that was good, I hope we can continue that.”