NCWTS: ERIK JONES Ready to Deliver Another “Lights-Out Performance”

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (May 13, 2015) – The last time that Dollar General’s yellow-and-black scheme adorned Erik Jones’ Tundra, the talented teenager captured  the pole at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway last November and led 114 of 126 laps en route to the victory in a race that was shortened due to a recurring power failure at the track. Jones hopes to duplicate that performance and deliver the nation’s largest small-box discount retailer another win Friday night when he climbs aboard his No. 4 Tundra for the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.

Friday’s race will mark Dollar General’s first of four-scheduled races onboard a KBM Tundra in 2015. The nation’s largest small-box discount retailer also sponsored four races last season, winning three of those events – twice with Kyle Busch (Kentucky Speedway and Chicagoland Speedway) behind the wheel in addition to Jones’ dominant victory at Phoenix. Overall in 32 races adorning KBM’s Tundras since 2010, the Tennessee-based company has been a part of nine wins – including the team’s historic first victory at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway in April of 2010 – and 18 top-five finishes.

Jones is coming off a dominant performance that ended in disappointment last Friday at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. The Michigan native broke the track record for the Truck Series with a lap of 30.101 seconds at 179.396 mph in qualifying to earn his third-career pole and proved to be just as fast once the race started. Jones led 151 of the first 161 laps and had a lead of over a second with 30 laps remaining, when he began to conserve fuel by getting out of the throttle at the start-finish line. Unfortunately, the No. 4 Tundra ran out of fuel with six laps remaining and had to coast down pit road.  After serving a pass-through penalty for speeding, the team was relegated to an 11^th-place finish.

Although he hasn’t notched a tally in the win column, statistics show that Jones has been the most impressive driver in the Truck Series through the first four races of the season. The 18-year-old leads the circuit in several major statistical categories, including Driver Rating (122.4), Average Running Place (2.972), Average Start (3.5), Average Mid-Race Position (2.8), Green Flag Speed (2.250 Average Rank), Fastest Laps Run (136) and Miles Led (284.53).

Jones and the No. 4 Dollar General team now head to Charlotte Motor Speedway, where Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) has won four of the five races it has competed in since its debut season in 2010, ready to deliver another “lights-out performance” and cash in their first win of 2015.

Erik Jones, driver of the No. 4 NCWTS Dollar General Tundra:

Are you looking forward to making your first start at Charlotte this weekend?

“We have a great mile-and-a-half program at KBM, so I’m always excited to get to those tracks. We had the fastest truck by far last week at Kansas, but unfortunately in the end it came down to fuel mileage and we weren’t able to get the win. Although I haven’t made a start at Charlotte, I was able to go to KBM’s rookie test earlier this year and shake down Justin Boston’s truck. By doing that and making 10 or 15 laps, I was able to get a feel for the place and what is different about it compared to other intermediate tracks. KBM has had a lot of success with Kyle at Charlotte, so hopefully we can carry some of that over this weekend and get another win for Dollar General.”

How much more confident are you on the mile-and-a-half tracks this year?

“I’ve gained a lot of confidence on the mile-and-a-half tracks by running in the XFINITY Series races for JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) this year and that experience is really going to help me in the Truck Series. After strong runs in our XFINITY car at Las Vegas, California and Texas, I feel like I have a better feel for what I need to be fast on the mile-and-a-half and bigger tracks, and I can  now transfer that knowledge over to the trucks. We’ve got a good string of tracks coming up on the Truck Series schedule — places where KBM has had a lot of success at — so I feel like we can go out and start reeling off some wins in the coming weeks.”

Erik Jones’ No. 4 Dollar General Tundra:

KBM-021: The No. 4 Dollar General team will unload chassis KBM-021 for Friday night’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.  The Tundra has won seven times in nine career starts, including the last four times it was in action. Kyle Busch collected four wins with ‘Blackjack’ in 2014 and Erik Jones was behind the wheel of the Toyota for his first mile-and-a-half victory at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway.

KBM-021 Performance Profile:

Notes of Interest:

Erik Jones @ Charlotte:

• Jones’ start in Friday night’s NCWTS North Carolina Education Lottery 200 will be his first in any series at the 1.5-mile oval 

Erik Jones 2015:

• After four NCWTS races ranks third in the driver point standings, 18 points behind points leader Matt Crafton, and leads the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings with 62 points
• Has posted two top-five and three top-10 finishes across four NCWTS starts, including a runner-up finish in the season-opening event at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway
• Leads the NCWTS in several statistical categories, including Driver Rating (122.4), Average Running Place (2.972), Average Start (3.5), Average Mid-Race Position (2.8), Green Flag Speed (2.250 Average Rank), Fastest Laps Run (136), Miles Led (284.53), Fastest Early in Run (2.750 Average Rank) and Fastest on Restarts (4.000 Average Rank)
• Was running inside the top 10 in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut at Kansas Speedway last week before being relegated to a 40^th-place finish after an accident on lap 197
• Collected his first career NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) win at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth on April 10 and overall in nine starts has accumulated three poles, five top-five and five top-10 finishes this season 

Erik Jones NCWTS Career Stats:

Erik Jones 2014

• Collected three wins (Iowa Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway), two poles, five top-five and eight top-10 finishes across 12 NCWTS starts
• Despite competing in just 12 of the 22 NCWTS events, ranked third among all drivers in laps led (300)
• Recorded top-10 finishes in all three of his NASCAR XFINITY Series starts for Joe Gibbs Racing

Erik Jones 2013

• His victory in the November event at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway at the time made him the youngest winner in the history of the NCWTS at 17 years, five months and nine days old
• Became the first 16-year-old to compete in a NCWTS race since KBM owner Kyle Busch in October of 2001, went on to finish ninth in his debut at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and recorded top-10 finishes in all five of his series starts
• Collected first ARCA Racing Series victory at Berlin (Mich.) Raceway and registered two top-five and three top-10 finishes across four starts
• Became just the third driver in the 46-year-history of the prestigious Snowball Derby Super Late Model race at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Fla., to register back-to-back victories after outdueling KBM owner Kyle Busch for the win in 2012

Kyle Busch Motorsports’ No. 4 Tundra:

• The No. 4 team currently ranks third in the 2015 NCWTS Owner’s Championship point standings, 18 points behind the series-leading No. 88 team 

KBM NCWTS Program

• Has collected three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Owner’s Championships, 39 Truck Series victories and 19 poles across 213 starts since originating in 2010
• 39 career Truck Series victories as an organization ranks third all-time behind Roush (50) and Kevin Harvick Inc. (43)
• 14 victories as an organization during the 2014 season broke the Truck Series record of 12 set by Ultra Motorsports in 2001
• Six different drivers have won a race for KBM, led by owner-driver Kyle Busch with 26. Darrell Wallace Jr. collected five victories, Erik Jones has posted  four wins, Denny Hamlin produced two victories and Kasey Kahne and Brian Scott both collected one triumph
• Has collected victories at 17 of the 21 tracks on the 2015 schedule, excluding Atlanta Motor Speedway, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Michigan International Speedway and Pocono Raceway

KBM NCWTS @ Charlotte Motor Speedway (CMS)

• KBM drivers have collected four wins, two poles, 286 laps led, five top-five and five top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 12.1 across 10 starts at CMS
• Owner-driver Kyle Busch has collected all four of his team’s wins at the 1.5-mile track, including victories the last two seasons
• In last year’s event at the North Carolina track, Busch started on the pole and registered a perfect driver rating (150.0) after leading 130 of the 134 laps

The Fugle File:

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 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 win (Kyle Busch, 2013), 80 laps led, one top-five and one top-10 finish resulting in an average finish of 16.0 across two starts at CMS.

ABOUT DOLLAR GENERAL:

Dollar General Corporation has been delivering value to shoppers for over 75 years. Dollar General helps shoppers Save time. Save money. Every day!® by offering products that are frequently used and replenished, such as food, snacks, health and beauty aids, cleaning supplies, basic apparel, house wares and seasonal items at low everyday prices in convenient neighborhood locations. With more than 11,800 stores in 43 states, Dollar General has more retail locations than any retailer in America. In addition to high quality private brands, Dollar General sells products from America’s most-trusted manufacturers such as Clorox, Energizer, Procter & Gamble, Hanes, Coca-Cola, Mars, Unilever, Nestle, Kimberly-Clark, Kellogg’s, General Mills, and PepsiCo. For more information on Dollar General, please visit www.dollargeneral.com.

-KBM-