Erik Jones Leads UNOH 175 Practice
LOUDON, NH — Erik Jones was a quick study after some advice from team owner Kyle Busch ahead of this weekend. Busch has eight wins at the Magic Mile, including the last three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races. The Byron, MI driver led practice at 28.871 seconds/131.925 MPH in the No. 51 ToyotaCare/Project Pink Toyota.
“I talked to Kyle before I came here just about this place,” Jones said. “He’s won a lot of truck races here. I’ve never been here, so he was able to help me out a little bit and that’s a pretty big thing for me.”
Jones won an ARCA Midwest Tour race at The Milwaukee Mile earlier this year. The flat, one-mile oval in W. Allis, WI is a similar to New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“A little bit of the driving transfers over and a little bit of the knowledge that we learned up there,” Jones said. “The Late Model’s a pretty different car, but I was able to bring a few things over. So I think it definitely helped out and it gave me some more confidence coming into this weekend and being comfortable with where we’re at and where we’re running.”
Jones has two wins in 12 starts for Kyle Busch Motorsports since last year. Both wins came at tracks a mile or less (Phoenix and Iowa). He won in only his fifth start at age 17, setting the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series record. He finished third in his most recent start at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park last month.
Jones discussed his quick success in the move to the truck series.
“We’ve got great Tundras over here and they’re fast every weekend. We’ve learned a lot from last year and moved forward and I’ve just been in the right opportunity. So it’s tough when you’re running a partial schedule ‘cause you don’t really …. get that true line of communication with your crew chief. Although I have a great relationship with Eric and we both get along great and we move forward every weekend. It’s still tough not doing it every week in and week out, so they do a great job. Obviously with Kyle staying in it for most of the season, he’s able to get in and really evaluate the program and where we’re at and where we need to be better, so it all works out at the end of the day to be able to go out and be competitive every weekend and it just has for the last year or so.”
“I feel like I know a lot more, a lot better what I need out of my car on the short track stuff than the mile-and-a-half stuff. I’m still learning quite a bit on that side, but I feel really confident here on the short track side and obviously KBM’s stuff’s been really fast this year and we’ve had it very good on the short track stuff. So we need to be a little bit better here after the first practice, but I think we’ve had some success on short tracks this year and I think this is a place where we can have success.”
Kyle Busch Motorsports owns nine wins this year between Kyle Busch, Jones, and Darrell Wallace Jr.: Daytona, Kansas, Charlotte, Dover, Gateway, Kentucky, Iowa, Eldora, and Chicagoland.
“We show up pretty much the same with both trucks every weekend. They’re pretty close in setup, so it’s a matter of us learning from each other. Some things we’ll take from the 54 and then the 54 will take some things from us through practice and some of the different things we do. So it’s pretty important to use that communication line between Kyle and between Darrell to go to the track and learn from each other.”
“…It’s just a matter of everybody working together and being able to find things to make us go faster and we’ve continually learned throughout the year things that are making our trucks better, that are making us faster, whether it’s aero or chassis-wise. We’re just always learning and always finding stuff to make it better.”
Only eight drivers in the 30 truck field have a previous start here: T.J. Bell, Norm Benning, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Joey Coulter, Matt Crafton, Timothy Peters, German Quiroga, and Johnny Sauter.
“I think everybody’s on a pretty level playing field for the most part. Not many people have been here. I know Crafton’s been here and Sauter’s been here and a few others, but they’ll be fast and they’ve been fast in the first practice. So those will be the guys we’re going to have to keep up with this weekend. But I think we’ve got a truck good enough that can compete and definitely enough practice to where I can learn what I need to do to get around this place fast enough.”
Busch is a frequent winner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and also makes appearances in Super Late Models throughout the year. This is in addition to his full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup and extensive Nationwide Series schedule for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Fellow Sprint Cup driver Brad Keselowski also fields a two team effort for Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick. Keselowski picked up his first series victory at Bristol last month in the series his father raced five seasons.
“It’s cool to see those guys have something they’re so dedicated to in racing and it’s just cool to see Kyle as happy as me or Darrell go pick up a win and he loves to see his stuff go out and do well and it just fun to see him like that. So they both really enjoy it. They love what they get to do here in the truck series being owners and it’s pretty cool to have them here.”
Jones has four races left on his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule (Las Vegas, Talladega, Martinsville, and Phoenix). Phoenix will also be his third NASCAR Nationwide Series start. He will defend a pair of Super Late Model titles with the Winchester 400 and Snowball Derby later this year.
“All kinds of things to finish out the year all kinds of tracks all kinds of cars, so I’m looking forward to all of it.”
Jones beat Kyle Busch to win in his Snowball Derby debut in 2012. Since then he has added a second consecutive derby win at Five Flags Speedway and last year’s Winchester 400 driving Super Late Models for Kyle Busch.
“That was a pretty big opportunity for me and really got me my shot here at KBM, but I think it just kind of raises your stock in the racing world and not only that it raises your confidence as a driver that you went out and you’ve won these races. So hopefully we can pick up a few more this year before we’re all said and done. But it’s fun to be able to go and run these races and all these big races and to be able to have a couple of wins in the truck series has being great and hopefully we can keep it all going.”
Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com