Erik Jones Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FONTANA, Calif. – Kyle Larson kept polesitter Joey Logano at bay after a restart with four laps left in Saturday’s Service King 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Auto Club Speedway and held on to win by .127 seconds. Larson and Logano had swapped the lead on three successive laps before Brandon Jones plowed into the outside wall on Lap 142 to bring out the seventh and final caution of the afternoon. The lead cars pitted for fresh tires under the yellow, with LarsonRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – Erik Jones’ No. 77 Furniture Row Racing team did everything right in Sunday’s Camping World 500 at Phoenix International Raceway—except for predicting how many cars would take two tires versus four on the final pit stop before overtime. Jones was running fifth when a melted bead caused Joey Logano’s right front tire to explode and sent the No. 22 Ford of the polesitter into the Turn 1 wall on Lap 307 of a scheduled 312. Jones took four tires under theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – When the winner of Sunday’s Camping World 500 was announced, officials might have thought for a moment that they got the wrong envelope, a la Warren Beatty at the Oscars. But, no, there was no mistake. Ryan Newman was the unexpected winner of the fourth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season after a late caution gave his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing team the chance to break a drought dating to 2013. Staying out on old tires forRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – Justin Allgaier popped a tire during his celebratory burnout after Saturday’s DC Solar 200 at Phoenix International Raceway. But you can forgive the driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet if he was a trifle rusty with his donuts—Allgaier hadn’t been to Victory Lane in the NASCAR XFINITY Series since August in 2012 at the road course in Montreal. On a blistering afternoon that brought emotions to a boil at the one-mile race track in the Sonoran Desert, Allgaier sailedRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Throughout the season-opening race weekend at Daytona, the winners of the earlier stages have failed to finish their respective events. It happened to Johnny Sauter in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race and it happened to Elliott Sadler in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race, and in Sunday’s Daytona 500, it happened yet again. Kyle Busch, who was still seeking his first Daytona 500 win, was able to drive his No. 18 Toyota to the front of the field at lap 42, taking overRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor For much of the second Can-Am Duel at Daytona, it looked like it would be Dale Earnhardt, Jr following the lead of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott to score the win after qualifying on the front row for the Daytona 500, but Denny Hamlin had other plans as he was able to execute a late race pass to take the lead and the win. “It was great. Great car. Got a great push there for Austin (Dillon). We worked really well together that entireRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer *Editor’s note: Motorsports Tribune will be previewing the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season for 24 drivers. We will release one driver preview per day over a 24-day stretch. Age: 36 Years in Cup: 11 Career Wins: 7 Biggest Accomplishment: 4 wins in 2016 A stellar 2016 season saw Martin Truex Jr. tie a career best with eight top-five finishes and set career bests with four wins, five poles and 1,809 laps led. The four wins included two of the sport’s crown jewels, the Coca-ColaRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Entering Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Erik Jones looked to become one of the few drivers to win a championship in both the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, but for the 20-year old Joe Gibbs Racing driver, a championship in NASCAR’s second tier series was just not meant to be. “It was a valiant effort. Just didn’t come with a big reward again. The GameStop Camry wasn’t very good to start. We worked hard to get it good byRead More

On a late restart with less than 10 laps to go in Saturday night’s Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Cole Whitt opted to stay on the track, while the rest of the field pitted. Whitt, who had the speed of an 18th place car was placed in front of the field with 30-plus lap old tires. When the green flag was shown, Whitt spun his tires and stacked up the outside lane on the restart. This foiled Erik Jones’ and Justin Allgaier’s chances at winning the NASCAR Xfinity SeriesRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor For the duration of the 2016 season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, two organizations, Joe Gibbs Racing and JR Motorsports, have stood out above the rest and with Saturday night’s penultimate race of the season at Phoenix complete, both of those teams will go head to head in next weekend’s championship finale at Homestead. The two organizations have combined for 22 wins in the first 32 races of the season, with Joe Gibbs Racing taking 17 of those wins and JR Motorsports taking the otherRead More