(Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
LONG POND, Pa. — Erik Jones hasn’t had the season he expected in 2023 after winning at Darlington Raceway last year with LEGACY Motor Club.
In 20 races, Jones has just three top-10 finishes and is 28th in points, facing a must-win situation to make the playoffs. That goal didn’t seem attainable a little over a month ago, but Jones is suddenly riding a wave of momentum heading into the heart of the summer. The 27-year-old from Byron, Michigan finished eighth at Nashville Superspeedway at the end of June, 16th at the Chicago Street Course and now has consecutive 11th-place finishes at Atlanta Motor Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Jones attributed crew chief Dave Elenz and successful simulation work as reasons why the team is on an upswing.
“Dave [Elenz] and I are usually on the same page of those things, it’s just a matter of finding the direction to go and how t0 get there,” Jones said at Pocono Raceway on Saturday. “Everybody’s just done a good job of taking our simulation work and really applying it a little bit better to reality and how it plays out on the track. So obviously, been happy to see it.
“We’d love to have a little bit more than what we’ve got. We’re right on the verge of top 10s, and a top 10 is a good day. Still need a little bit more, but definitely way better than when we were a 25th-place car for a month or two there … been happy and proud of that. Hopefully, it’s a good time to get better.”
Jones admitted that 2023 has been one of the most challenging of his career. The team added a new owner in seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson over the off-season, announced a manufacturer switch to Toyota in 2024 and suffered an L1 penalty for a greenhouse infraction after Gateway.
He compared this season to his first with Richard Petty Motorsports in 2021. Jones had been released from Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota and got put in a difficult off-season predicament, resulting in driving some of the least funded equipment of his career.
However, he said that in 2021, he felt that he managed to capitalize on days that the team was off. This year has been the opposite.
“There hasn’t been days I feel like we’ve capitalized — haven’t had things really go our way when things had an option of going one way or another,” Jones said. “Haven’t had that speed anywhere where I thought this is a race-winning or contending car. Nashville was the best car we’ve had in a long time in practice with speed right off the truck.
“It’s been tough. Fortunately, I feel like I’ve been doing it long enough now in the Cup level. I know how it goes and how to handle it, but it’s definitely been a tough year.”
While Jones’ best track, Darlington, is the first race of the playoffs, he still feels a win could be attainable to lock in under the right circumstances. He attributed Daytona International Speedway as a chance to win, as well as some of the higher speed tracks such as Michigan International Speedway and this weekend at Pocono Raceway.
Jones has five top fives in 11 starts at Pocono and qualified for Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400 in 24th.
“A couple good races coming up, at least for us historically, and for where we’ve been getting our cars better,” Jones said. “I don’t think it’s off the table at all. Definitely [Pocono], Michigan and Daytona are ones I’m looking at as opportunities. If you can hit it right and capitalize on it, you never know.”
Sunday’s race is set for 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
