By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
In a day that saw plenty of attrition, pit road penalties and blown tires at Texas Motor Speedway, Erik Jones kept clean.
In fact, Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 was the best race for the sophomore all season, driving to finish fourth in his first year in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Toyota.
The day started mid-pack in 21st and only grew from there.
“We’ve been inching there each week, getting closer and closer,” Jones said. “Each on the 1.5- and 2-miles we have been getting better.”
With finishes of eighth at Las Vegas and 11th at Atlanta, Jones had a realistic gauge of top 10 on his mind entering another 1.5-miler of Texas. However, his past success in the XFINITY Series here boosted morale even higher.
And why wouldn’t it? The 21-year-old won three times in six XFINITY starts at Texas, including two poles and 368 laps led, making Texas his best 1.5-miler of the year.
“Texas is a place I like,” he said. “It’s tough to pinpoint it. I remember the first time I came here, I didn’t like it at all. Then we won an XFINITY race and I slowly started to figure it out. Then, a lot of success in XFINITY the last couple years. The repave changed a bit but I’m really comfortable here.”
Running up front Sunday meant racing Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, the two men who combined to lead 203 of 334 laps. Jones held his own, leading 64 on the day, but didn’t have enough to join the duo for the race-winning battle.
“You always learn something racing Kyle or Harvick, guys of that caliber,” he said. “They’re really fast. It was fun racing with [Kyle]. It was frustrating sitting in second place watching him drive away by a half-car length a lap. Kind of shaking my head, seems like every time I get to lead some laps he comes up and spoils it.”
“Hopefully one day we can get up and challenge him for one of these wins.
With his first top-five finish of 2018, Jones jumps to 11th in points entering one of his best tracks, Bristol Motor Speedway, where he led more than half the race from pole just last summer.
“To get up front, just in the top five was a big moment for us,” he said. “It’s something I’ve been wanting to do here with this group. We did a good job this weekend. A lot to build on for Bristol.”