Photo Credit: Rainier Ehrhardt/NASCAR via Getty Images
Leading 117 of 147 laps, Erik Jones would dominate en route to winning the WinStar World Casino & Resort 350 at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night.
“Well we went through a lot of ups and downs the past couple months in trying to get back in the championship hunt,” Jones commented. “It’s been a ride but it’s pretty awesome to get back to victory lane, especially at Texas – a place that I love. It’s just so cool to win here.”
Matt Crafton would start the race on the pole, leading the first 14 laps till Jones made his way by. Jones would lead till the first set of pit stops, before a hang-up with the jack would allow Crafton to retake the lead. Following a caution for debris at lap 61, Jones would take the lead from Crafton at lap 65, holding the top spot through the final round of pit stops to win the event.
For Jones, the victory allows him to extend his points lead from 10 points to 17 points ahead of Crafton with two races to go.
“Definitely excited,” Jones commented. “Me and (truck owner) Kyle (Busch) were talking earlier this week and talking how these next three tracks are good for KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports) and myself. Going into phoenix next week, hopefully we can pick up another win.”
Kyle Busch Motorports would score their first 1-2 finish of the 2015 season on Friday night as Jones’ teammate Daniel Suarez would post his third runner-up finish of the season. Following the race, Suarez would credit Busch for the success in the help that he offered.
“He’s been teaching me a lot of things,” Suarez said. “I’m very thankful for him. At the beginning of the year I wasn’t really strong and then I started to talk to him and it got better. I’m very fortunate to have friends like him and support from guys like him. I’m happy, and happy for the team. We just have to keep ourself running well and the win will come. I’m sure it will come this year.”
Ryan Blaney would finish the event in the third spot, filling-in for the injured Austin Theriault at Brad Keselowski Racing.
“Well we got progressively better throughout the night,” he commented. “We were able to get up there fairly quick and Chad Kendrick did a good job at getting us better throughout the night. That’s all that you can ask. We just didn’t have enough speed to keep up with the 4 and the 51 got by us – they seemed to have more long run speed than us.”
Crafton would finish fourth after leading the early laps, commenting post-race that he was too free at the beginning of the race, and they ended up over adjusting for the final run to the checkered. Crafton would add that it was a decent day, but “not quite as good as what we needed to be”. Tyler Reddick would finish fifth to currently sit third in points, 21 points behind Jones.
“Obviously, I knew we wouldn’t be great in qualifying and unfortunately we were worse than I thought,” Reddick commented. “It’s a shame that there were not any cautions n the race and didn’t fire off good on the restart. I think with some cautions we could’ve gotten up there.”
Timothy Peters would finish sixth, followed by Brandon Jones, Christopher Bell, Ben Kennedy and Cameron Hayley.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will return to the track next weekend on Friday, November 13 at Phoenix International Raceway. The race is scheduled for 9pm EST.
