By Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
LONG POND, Pa. – Erik Jones didn’t have the Camping World Truck Series on his to-do- list Saturday at Pocono Raceway. But when Noah Gragson was not cleared by NASCAR due to a sickness, his No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota became open.
And Jones filled it.
Making his first series start since 2016, though unexpected, Jones started in the rear and drove straight to the race lead in Stage 2. After passing teammate Kyle Busch for that top spot, Jones knew he had a good truck despite never driving it prior to the green flag.
“It was a little snug. Noah is a little smaller than me I believe,” Jones said. “We went out and the truck was great. I just got stuck on the bottom on the last restart and lost a couple spots.”
Indeed, the final restart with __ laps to go put Jones behind Dalton Sargeant, who shortened Jones’ window to hunt down Busch. Despite getting within a half-second of the No. 51, Jones didn’t have that little extra to beat the boss.
“If we could’ve gotten out front in the end, we probably would’ve held Kyle off,” he said. “It took too long to get through traffic and challenge.”
Though short on time, Jones still had a window to speak with Busch prior to the start of the 60-lap event.
“I talked to Kyle a little before the race, looked at some old data to refresh my memory,” he said. “I knew it was going to be challenging coming from the back and not being in the truck all day. I don’t know how Noah drives his trucks.”
Jones’ second-place run was his 17th consecutive top-10 finish in the Truck Series, dating back to Iowa Speedway in the summer of 2015. But in the meantime, Jones made the transition to the XFINITY and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, making Saturday’s race a little tricky for the ’15 champion.
“You’re definitely changing your mindset getting into a Truck race,” he said. “I was planning on taking a nap and catching the end of the Truck race. I had to reset and try to think back to what I did here three years ago in Trucks.
“But we fired off and it was very quick. We got to the front fast.”