By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
The transition for Brandon Jones to Joe Gibbs Racing has been full of up and downs.
Jones came to Joe Gibbs Racing at the beginning of 2018 after two full-time seasons with Richard Childress Racing. Through the first 15 races of the season, Jones has scored two top-fives, seven top-10’s and one pole.
As the NASCAR Xfinity Series is at the beginning of a 15-race stretch, Jones and his crew chief, Chris Gabehart, have sat down and assessed where they are on the performance list after an up-and-down season on the chart.
“We actually, myself and my crew chief have sat down and kind of assessed that, so the best way I can kind of describe it was if I came to JGR, I’ll make a number up, but at 20 percent out of 100 percent, the amount of work you put into it and the amount of effort to get to 80 percent is going to be big,” Jones stated.
“You’re really going to see a lot of improvement. But then to go from 80 percent now to 100 percent, you’re not going to see much improvement, much return, but you’re still working as hard as you possibly can.”
During this 15 week stretch, the biggest goal is for Jones and the team to stay to stay focused. While staying focused, Jones does not want to become complacent and accept certain finishes.
“It’s really hard to try to stay focused on some of these races and not just kind of accept where you’re at and accept what you’re running at, so we’ve really got to stay after it, make sure all of my guys are still fully committed into it, and I think I’ve got the right guys to stay with that mindset,” Jones said.
The hopes are that this 15-race stretch will benefit the No. 19 team. Jones believes that sometimes the breaks within the early part of the schedule can ruin momentum for teams.
“Sometimes when you have a couple breaks in there, I don’t say you really get off, but you kind of do have that one week where you relax and then you have to try to get hyped back up for those races. So when you’re in a stretch like this, it goes by extremely fast, but at the same time you’re learning every single weekend and you’re not kind of getting in and out,” Jones continued.
With more consistency, the No. 19 team hopes to improve the team’s overall performance during this stretch.