Erik Jones completes two-track weekend sweep

Erik Jones completes two-track weekend sweep

June 21, 2015

By Jack McCarthy

NASCAR Wire Service

JOLIET, Ill. — Erik Jones’ last-ditch push had a victory payoff on Sunday.

Neck-and-neck with Ryan Blaney entering the final dozen laps, Jones finally slipped ahead after a restart and rolled to a 1.958-second victory margin in Sunday’s Owens Corning AttiCat 300 race at Chicagoland Speedway.

“I got the inside of him and just barreled into (turn) three as hard as I could to clear and slid in front,” said Jones, who started 11th in his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. “Fortunately it worked and he didn’t try to cross us over or anything else.”

Jones claimed his second NASCAR XFINITY Series race of the season, recorded his eighth top 10 series finish and completed a weekend sweep that included Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series American Ethanol 200 at Iowa Speedway.

Jones, the youngest NASCAR driver to win two races in the same weekend, has run in all three series this season.

Time behind the wheel has proven invaluable for the 19-year-old driver.

“It seemed like last year I’d be into these situations and be so nervous,” he said. “This time its like ‘I’ve got this.’ I felt like I’ve done it so many times throughout the year and throughout the day that it felt more natural. That’s definitely a product of seat time and being in the car every week or the truck every week.

“It’s been a huge, huge help.”

Jones led 94 of the race’s 200 laps while Blaney topped the field for 43 laps.

The race — the 14th in this season’s XFINITY series — was originally set for 9:30 p.m. (ET) on Saturday, but was washed out as downpours hit Joliet and the entire Chicago area.

Nearly 14 hours later, Sunday’s restart went off a bit after noon (ET) without a hitch under dry conditions and increasingly sunny skies.

Blaney nearly had a storybook finish as he overcame earlier misfortune to lead the race with less than a dozen laps remaining.

Driving the No. 22 Hertz Ford for Team Penske, Blaney wrecked his primary car in Saturday qualifying, started Sunday with a backup car in the back row but quickly maneuvered into the top 10 and moved into the lead with 45 laps to run.

“I thought it was a good day for us, a decent day,” Blaney said. “I felt like I threw it away yesterday wrecking our primary. For our team to get a backup car out and work as hard as they did and have a car contending for the win and to be leading in the last little bit and then just not pull it off, that really speaks volumes to them about how well they prepared.”

The race featured a track record 23 lead changes, plus seven cautions for 39 laps.

Series points leader Chris Buescher finished fifth and maintained his series lead with 528 points, 29 points ahead of second place Ty Dillon.

He shook off a penalty for speeding on pit road and rallied to the top five.

“It’s a good points day, that’s how it ended up,” Buescher said. “The pit road speeding penalty is on me. ... I got us a little bit behind there and put us in a bad spot but the guys did a good job coming back.”

He regained track position when 22 drivers were penalized for pitting too soon with 46 laps remaining.

Chase Elliott, who won last summer’s XFINITY Chicagoland race on the way to the 2014 series championship, spun out with 23 laps to go and finished 14th. He’s still looking for his first win of the season.

Ross Kenseth, driving the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing, was sixth in his XFINITY Series debut, a nice rebound after a Friday spinout during practice in his first time running the track.

“In the last two days we were a lot better than my first day here,” said Kenseth, son of 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Matt Kenseth. “At the end I thought we were really good — a third, fourth-place car — (but) was a little disappointed we didn’t get into the top five. ... But the guys worked so hard at it and gave me a great car this weekend.”

The XFINITY series takes a break this week and resumes with a July 4 race at Daytona International Speedway.