By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
After spinning on lap 10, Erik Jones was able to rebound to a third-place finish in the second Can-Am Duel at Daytona.
As the field was jockeying for position going down the backstretch, Jones was turned to bring out the sole caution of the second duel. Jones made his way down pit road to fix slight damage to the nose of the car. Luckily, the car felt competitive. Jones recognized that his spin was just a cause of a bad aero situation.
Just like many drivers, handling was an issue for Jones throughout the duels. Jones and his pit crew will be making swings in the remaining practice sessions of the weekend to minimize handling issues.
“The cars here are just really hard to drive right now. It’s not even that, it’s just anybody can put anybody in a really bad aero situation. I felt like I could’ve probably got people in those situations to spin out too if I was to force the issue. It’s kind of dependent on the guy behind you,” Jones stated.
“They can really put you in a bad spot, so just learning from that and just trying to stay away from it as much as you can. Just had some unfortunate runs there at the end and some unfortunate positions that got us back kind of in contention and got us a good finish.”
Like many drivers, Jones believes that the Daytona 500 will be a tough race. He believes that the things he saw Chase Elliott, Can-Am Duel 2 winner, will translate on Sunday.
“I think it’s just going to be a tough race. You’re just going to have to stay out of some bad spots and if you get into them you’re going to have to get out of them really quickly,” Jones stated.
“I thought when Chase (Elliott) got there just to the inside I couldn’t really get away from him. He was driving us down and kind of had us in his wake and I was stuck and basically just ended up being in such a bad spot I spun out. It’s unfortunate. It’s just a tough deal so you’ve just got to stay out of those situations.”
Jones will start from the eighth position in The Great American Race.