Photo Credit: Ronald Costigan
With three wins, 11 top-fives and 19 top-10s on the season, Erik Jones enters this weekend’s final race of the Camping World Truck Series schedule with a 19 point advantage over Tyler Reddick.
“Well, I think we’re all excited to get to Homestead, but it’s been such a busy couple weeks for me it seems like it’s been flying by,” he commented. “It’s right around the corner and coming here pretty fast. But I was thinking about it a little bit yesterday and just being ready to get there and go out and get the race started and hopefully come home with the championship.”
The current point situation will allow Jones to clinch with a finish of 15th or better, no matter how Reddick performs in the event. Notably, this year will mark Jones’ first trip to Homestead-Miami Speedway. Jones says it’s nice to have a cushion as it allows them to not have to push the envelope this weekend.
“We don’t have to run top 5. We don’t even really have to run top 10,” he commented. “So I think it’s going to be somewhat conservative of an a approach, but I don’t think we need to change our approach by a whole lot.
“Obviously Homestead and the big risk for anybody is getting up into the fence the way you get around that place. But I think most of the day we’ll just concentrate on not ever really getting up by the wall. We don’t need to make that kind of time. And I think as long as we don’t do that, we can probably run 7th or 8th and be pretty comfortable most of the day and close this deal out.”
If Jones is able to beat Reddick, he will become the youngest series champion as the age of 19, beating out a previous record held by Austin Dillon.
“I think it’s definitely a pretty cool accomplishment, let alone winning the championship but being the youngest to do it,” he said. “All along our goal at KBM has been for me to run for a driver’s championship, and be able to get KBM its first driver’s championship.”
Jones has been with Kyle Busch Motorsports for three seasons now, being apart of the organization’s Owner’s Championships the past two seasons while sharing the truck with Kyle Busch. This year marked Jones’ first full-season behind the wheel.
“So to be able to put ourselves in this position to have a great shot to go and get it, that’s just a big accomplishment in itself,” he continued. :So I’d be really, really happy if we can bring that back to KBM. For everything they’ve done for me, and for everything Kyle has done for me.”
Jones says through the partial years with KBM, he had already envisioned himself racing for a driver’s championship, it was just about waiting for the right pieces to come together. The surprise, though, has been the other opportunities. Jones has been able to run three Sprint Cup Series races, as well as 22 NASCAR XFINITY Series races this season. Notably, Jones won a pair of XFINITY Series races this season.
Either way, though, the young driver acknowledges how far how much he has grown as a driver since starting with KBM in 2012 after beating Kyle Busch at the Snowball Derby to get the opportunity.
“I think for me the biggest challenge at first was just trying to manage time away from the track, and at the track trying to learn more about truck racing in general and trying to figure out how to put myself in position at the end of the day to have a shot at it,” he commented. “And then the short track stuff was something I had done for a long time, and the mile-and-a-half stuff was kind of new to me. So learning that and leaning a lot on Kyle and trying to figure out how to be better at the mile-and-a-half side of things was big for me.
“So I think we’ve come a long way definitely since 2013. I’ve come a long way myself. KBM has come a long way. It’s been fun to grow together and fun to see the progress along the way.”
It’d certainly be great for Jones and KBM if they could go out on top, as Jones will look to move in 2016 with an opportunity in the XFINITY Series with Joe Gibbs Racing.
