NCWTS: ERIK JONES Looking to Deliver KBM its Fifth Grandfather Clock

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Oct. 27, 2015) – Coming off a successful trip to Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway last weekend, where they escaped unharmed with a fourth-place finish and an 18-point lead in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship standings, Erik Jones and the No. 4 Toyota Tundra team now head to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for Saturday’s Kroger 200. A Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) driver has been victorious in each of the last four NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ October visits to ‘The Paperclip’ and Jones hopes that when he clocks out on Saturday he will have made it five straight for the organization.

The Truck Series championship points leader enters this weekend’s race with a streak of 11 consecutive top-10 finishes, the longest current streak in the Truck Series. After the eighth race of the season at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Ill., Jones found himself fourth in points, 33 behind Matt Crafton. His recent run of top-10 finishes, which has included wins at Iowa Speedway and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ont., has propelled him to the top of the championship standings, where he sits 18 points ahead of Tyler Reddick with four races remaining.

Saturday’s 200-lap event will mark Jones’ fifth career start at the .526-mile oval, the most he’s made at any track on the circuit.  He made his Truck Series debut in Martinsville as a 16-year-old in April of 2013 and came from the 19th starting position to register an impressive ninth-place finish. In his second start, he was in line for a top-five finish in the spring race in 2014 before getting turned late in the race and being relegated to an 18th-place finish. Last October, he clocked out with a fourth-place finish and earlier this year he led his first laps at the track and one-upped himself with a track-best third-place finish.

Loop Data Statistics show that like a fine Martinsville hot dog, Jones gets better with each bite. His driver rating and percentage of quality passes have improved with each start at the Virginia track and the number of times he has been passed under green-flag conditions has declined. The talented youngster is ready to keep his statistics winding clockwise on Saturday as he looks to deliver KBM its fifth grandfather clock and keep the team’s streak of October wins alive.

“It’s hard to believe that Martinsville is the place where I have the most experience, because it’s a track that I feel like I struggled getting adapted to the first couple of races. The way it is laid out, it makes it a challenge for a lot of guys. The tough part is that you are hard onto the brakes into the corner, but then you have to be able to roll the center and be able to get off the corner. I feel like I’m still trying to figure it all out on my end, but each time out our Tundra has been faster and I’m getting better as well. We finished fourth there last year in the fall race and third this spring — hopefully we can improve a couple more spots and bring home a win this time around. KBM’s won the last four fall races there, it would be cool to win one of the grandfather clocks for myself and keep the team’s win streak alive.”

“Yes — this spring was definitely his best race. We had a really competitive, top-three truck, with (Joey) Logano and (Matt) Crafton. Joey won’t be in the race Saturday, but you know that Matt’s going to be really good again. Erik’s always raced well at Martinsville, but he gets a little frustrated that it takes him longer to get up to speed there than it does most places. He keeps improving each time we go back and I’m confident that we will be right there competing for the win this time around.”

KBM-24: The No. 4 Toyota Racing team will unload chassis KBM-24 for Saturday’s Kroger 200 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. This will be the fifth start of the season for the chassis. Jones most recently raced it in September at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon where he qualified fourth and finished seventh. The Tundra debuted at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway last November, where Jones captured the pole and led 114 of 126 laps en route to victory in the race which was shortened due to electrical issues.

Ryan “Rudy” Fugle will call the shots for Erik Jones’ Truck Series championship campaign in 2015. The New York native led KBM’s No. 51 Tundra team to a series-leading six wins, including Jones’ first-career victory at Phoenix International Raceway, and an Owner’s Championship as crew chief in 2013. He has eight career wins as a Truck Series crew chief, five with Kyle Busch behind the wheel and three with Jones. He also contributed to an additional 11 wins in his role as race engineer for the organization during the 2012 and 2014 seasons. Before coming to KBM, Fugle held crew chief positions in both the Truck Series and XFINITY Series with Germain Racing.

Fugle’s drivers have compiled one pole (Denny Hamlin, 10/26/13), 67 laps led, one top-five and three top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 12.5 across four starts at Martinsville.