NCWTS: ERIK JONES Rising Star Ready to Shine Big and Bright Deep in the Heart of Texas

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Nov. 3, 2015) – Erik Jones enters Friday night’s WinStar World Casino 350 at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) at Fort Worth with a 10-point lead in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship standings. The 19-year-old will be looking to hold off a challenge from two-time reigning champion Matt Crafton and fellow teenager Tyler Reddick over the final three races to deliver Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) its first-ever driver’s title and become the youngest champion in series history.

Jones and the No. 4 Toyota Tundra team know that if you are going to a tussle deep in the heart of Texas that you better bring your best, so they will be unloading a chassis that has won seven times in 11 career starts, including a victory with owner-driver Kyle Busch in last year’s WinStar World Casino 350 at TMS. Busch was victorious with KBM-021 in its debut at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. in September of 2013 and also collected a victory with the Tundra at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway in November of 2013.

Including his win at TMS last fall, Busch piloted the Toyota to victory four times in 2014; Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, Kentucky Speedway in Sparta and Chicagoland Speedway. Jones got in on the action with ‘Blackjack’ last September at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway, when he picked up his first win on a mile-and-half track. Not only does the truck end up out front, it can usually be found up front, having led a combined 658 laps across its 11 career starts. With seven career wins, the chassis is one win from tying KBM-007 for most wins in the team fleet. ‘007’ has eight career victories across 21 starts.

The last time that KBM-21 saw action was earlier this season with Jones in the June race at TMS.  The Michigan native captured the pole and led 68 of the first 84 laps before electrical charging issues relegated him to a 15^th-place finish.

Jones enters this weekend’s race with a streak of 12 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., the talented youngster 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 10 points ahead of Crafton with three races remaining.

With a strong Tundra underneath him for Friday night’s 147-lap shootout, the rising star is ready to shine big and bright deep in the heart of Texas as he continues his quest to corral KBM’s first-ever Driver’s Championship.

“I think my confidence is pretty high – we’ve been fast in everything we’ve gone there in from the XFINITY car the first time and then the truck being the first time there. We were really fast and then ended up having a part failure. I think that anytime you can have that kind of speed when you go somewhere and then when you go back you look forward to going. I have no doubt that we’ll be just as fast, we had a little bit of struggle in the first race there in practice and then we were fine in the race so hopefully we can get some of those issues sorted out and start out a little stronger in practice. We’ll see how it goes, but definitely looking forward to Texas.”

KBM-021: The No. 4 Toyota Tundra team will unload chassis KBM-021 for Friday night’s WinStar World Casino 350 at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) in Fort Worth.  The last time the Toyota saw the track, Jones captured the pole and led 68 of the first 84 laps in the June race at TMS before electrical charging issues relegated him to a 15^th-place finish. The Tundra has won seven times in 11 career starts, including Jones’ first career mile-and-a-half victory at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway last September and Kyle Busch’s win in last year’s WinStar World Casino 350 at TMS.

Date	Site	Driver	Start	Finish	Laps	Laps Led	Status
6/5/15	Texas	Jones	1	15	166/167	68	running
5/15/15	Charlotte	Jones	2	2	139/139	88	Running
10/31/14	Texas	Ky. Busch	2	1	152/152	80	Running
9/27/14	Las Vegas	Jones	13	1	146/146	19	Running
9/13/14	Chicago	Ky. Busch	7	1	150/150	66	Running
6/26/14	Kentucky	Ky. Busch	1	1	150/150	91	Running
6/6/14	Texas	Jones	5	11	166/167	0	Running
5/16/14	Charlotte	Ky. Busch	1	1	134/134	130	Running
11/15/13	Homestead	Ky. Busch	12	1	148/148	62	Running
11/1/13	Texas	Ky. Busch	11	28	96/147	2	Engine
9/13/13	Chicago	Ky. Busch	7	1	150/150	52	Running

Erik Jones 2013

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 Truck Series drivers have compiled one pole,  one top-10 finish, 70 laps led and an average finish of 19.8 across four starts at Texas.