Erik Jones still smiles after his exciting first Cup win last Saturday night at Daytona.
“Woooo, how ’bout that race boys and girls!?!”
It’s a quote we’ve heard since the checkered flag flew at Daytona for the Coke Zero Sugar 400. Erik Jones finally scored his first career win.
“It’s been a whirlwind week after leaving Daytona, then going up to Wisconsin to race the late model at Slinger,” Jones said. He elaborated on the win meant a lot to him. Moreover, it’s meant a lot to his family and all of the hard work has paid off.
“It was nice to finally get home yesterday and relax for a little while before coming here,” Jones remarked. “I did have to clean up a little from all of my friends and family that left signs of congratulations all over the yard.”
Jones enters Kentucky now locked into the NASCAR playoffs, which he says is a relief. Now, the focus for Jones and his No. 20 team is stage wins and points.
“We need to be able to go up and compete with Kyle (Busch), Havick and Truex,” Jones observed.
With one of his teammates as part of the “Big Three,” it would seem like Jones should be right there and ready to be a part of that crowd.
“I think we are getting really close to being able to compete with them,” Jones said. “There is still a little bit of work that we need to do thought.”
After a stretch of three races of 15th or worse at Michigan, Pocono, and Charlotte, Jones rattled off three straight top-seven finishes including the win. Amazingly, he pointed out to Sonoma, which was never a good track for him. In the end, he felt good running there.
Then, Chicago has been an OK track for him, and he came out of there with a sixth place finish.
“We’ve got a little work, but this next stretch of tracks is really good for myself, and really good for JGR,” he stated. “So, hopefully we can use that to our advantage and figure out what it takes to get up there.”
Jones and the rest of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will qualify this afternoon at 6:40.
