Jones feels a playoff run is realistic with Petty GMS this year

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | April 22, 2022 5:02 PM ET

Erik Jones knows what it’s like to be a playoff contender in NASCAR, having done so in all three series. But it’s been a few years (2019) and one organization ago (Joe Gibbs Racing) since Jones has been included on the graphic, invited to media day, and mentioned as part of the postseason.

The 25-year-old is eager to get back into the club.

The good news is that Jones thinks there is a strong possibility it happens this season for the No. 43 Petty GMS Motorsports team — a team that’s gone even longer (2014) than its driver in not experiencing a playoff berth.

“It’s definitely been a few years, and so getting those guys in that mindset I think is going to be big,” Jones said. “But they’re in right now. They feel like we’re competitive, and I feel like we’re competitive.

“I’m content — definitely more content than I’ve been in a few years with where we are. I’m excited to see where it goes. A lot of season left, but I’m happy with where we’re going.”

Jones understands the team needs to have more clean days to show what they are really capable of in the NASCAR Cup Series. He and crew chief Dave Elenz have shown they can run inside the top 10 with the best of the series on those clean days.

“If we hit the day right, we can contend,” Jones said. “Look at Fontana — we contended. Vegas, we had a car that could have contended but made too many mistakes, went to the back too much. On days where we struggle, top 15s would be great.

“So, I look at the points and where we’re at, and I think we have a good shot at making the playoffs if we can have a good clean run and get some good races in here. We want to win races. That’s my goal, Maury’s [Gallagher] goal, Richard’s [Petty] goal — everybody’s goal. We’re building to get to that point and just trying to stay up on things and keep getting the Next Gen car where we want it.”

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Execution is key. Speed hasn’t been the problem for Jones, who came out strong in the first few weeks and had some believing he might pull off a win.

Jones finished third in Fontana after leading 18 laps and was running eighth a week later at Las Vegas when the car broke away from him and hit the wall off Turn 4 with three laps to go. Another late-race crash followed at Phoenix when Jones was running 15th.

Atlanta and Circuit of The Americas went much better with a top-15 and top-10 finish. Jones was quiet in Richmond but then rebounded with another top-15 finish at Martinsville.
A strong start to the season for the Petty GMS Chevy has Jones confident in its long-haul prospects. Matt Thacker/Motorsport Images

“Starting the year, we started off strong,” Jones said. “We struggled at some tracks and excelled at others. The short tracks have been a struggle for us, for whatever reason. I just don’t think we’ve hit on things there. But the mile-and-a-half stuff has been really good.

“It’s just been a lot of self-inflicted issues probably that’s held us back, from stuff I’ve done to stuff the team’s had go wrong, and we stuff we could have done better. Honestly, I look at a lot of races that, if we could have just had clean days, could have been in contention to win a couple probably, and had better days on the days we struggled. It’s a learning process, but overall, I’ve been happy with it.”

Jones didn’t know what to expect on the dirt at Bristol. He finished 24th after being involved in a lap 170 caution after contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

“Talladega, that’s a shot for us to run really well and win,” he said. “Dover and Kansas coming up soon are going to be, I think, really good races for us. So just having good clean days (is important). And everybody’s improving, getting better. Those are the things that will show we’re pretty strong.”

A rough night at Bristol dropped Jones from 17th to 19th in the standings, but he is still in sight of his postseason push.

“It’s just a rewarding feeling for yourself and for your team,” Jones said of what it’s like to be in the playoffs. “You get to that point in the season, and you want to say not all is lost when those 10 races start and you’re not in it, but it definitely is a deflating feeling, and you’re definitely out of reach more with those guys than before.

“For me, I look at the times I was in the playoffs, and we just had some horrible luck. We got taken out one year right in the first race. Then we got DQ’d one year and wrecked the next. So, it was like every time I was in it, it never went as smooth as I would have hoped and it could have.

“2019 was a great season for us, but as soon as the playoffs started, it just collapsed, and we went downhill and fell out in the first round. I just want to have an opportunity to get back in it and try to advance and have a shot.”

 

Erik Jones: ‘I wish I would have stayed on the bottom’

Listen in as Erik Jones reacts to the final lap where he went from first to sixth in the last turn of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega.
04/24/2022

“Happy to run up front and lead laps, just would really love to get that 43 to Victory Lane and thought today might be the day,’’ Jones said. “We were fast all day long, had speed and especially being out front there at the end I know we had a shot, just couldn’t quite close it out.’’

 

Split-second decision didn't pay off for Jones at Talladega

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | April 24, 2022 8:07 PM ET

Erik Jones would have stuck on the bottom and not tried to block Kyle Larson — hindsight being 20/20 after time to digest the last lap of Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.

It was the wrong move — one Jones would have changed in order to not take himself out of contention in the GEICO 500. In that split second, Jones, the race leader, had to decide going through the tri-oval and facing the finish line hundreds of yards further down near Turn 1.

He followed Larson’s move to the outside. It left the bottom open for Ross Chastain to win the race. Jones finally crossed the line sixth.

“Defending the No. 5,” said Jones, when asked about what motivated his decision. “I probably would have just stayed on the bottom. I didn’t realize the bottom was coming with that much momentum. Rick [Carelli, spotter] was probably telling me, but I was just in my own world, right? You’re trying to [react] to what you can see and also trying to listen to him.

“Obviously, if I would have known the bottom had that much steam, I would have stuck with it and hoped the No. 1 [Chastain] has to push me. It’s frustrating — you work that hard for 500 miles and it comes down to the last few thousand feet. It’s tough. It’s a good shot for us to win. I feel like we can win at other places, but this was definitely a day I feel like we could have won.”

Jones took the lead with three laps to go, getting a push in the outside lane from William Byron. Once in the lead, Jones jumped to the bottom lane as the field broke up behind him. At the white flag, Jones led Larson, Chastain, Kurt Busch, and William Byron with the first nine drivers running single file.

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“Taking the white, I thought we were in pretty good shape with [Larson] behind us and being single file,” Jones said. “Obviously that’s the best-case scenario because you kind of only have to defend one car. I saw the top getting some momentum there in [Turns] 3 and 4 and it looked like they had a lot…and I was getting too far out. I was trying to back up to the No. 5.

“[Larson] got a run, I tried to defend and it kind of opened the door for the No. 1. He cruised by everybody and ended up winning the race. You only get so much of a picture in the car, in the seat, and I was trying to do what I thought I needed to do to win the race and, unfortunately, there were other circumstances, which is Talladega. But the Air Force Chevy was fast; just needed a few thousand more feet.”

Talladega was a race Jones looked ahead to as an opportunity for Petty GMS Motorsports. He was around the front all afternoon, leading 10 different times for a total of 25 laps and was inside the top 10 at the end of both stages.

Sunday is the third top-10 finish for Jones this season and his fourth top-10 finish at Talladega in his last five starts.

“It’s good in the sense [that] we needed a good run. We’ve struggled the last few races and since COTA haven’t finished well,” Jones said. “We needed a good finish to get some points. We were falling too far back in points. In that sense, it’s good. In the other sense, it’s frustrating.

“You try to look at the positives and [those are]: We did have a fast car, led laps and were in the lead coming to where we needed to be. But it just makes you want to work harder, I guess, at the end of the day. We’ll go to Dover next weekend and hope we’ll have another opportunity. I know we can win at non-superspeedways. We just have to put the parts and the pieces in place to do it, so just have to ride the confidence and know we did what we could do today — what I could — and hopefully go on from there.”