SONOMA, Calif. — Legacy Motor Club driver Erik Jones is trying to take a business-as-usual approach to Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), but there’s a twist that may prevent him from doing so.
Jones is one of eight NASCAR Cup Series drivers still alive in the inaugural In-Season Challenge, with a $1-million prize awaiting the winner following the final round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 27.
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Here’s the catch. To advance past Round 3, the 20th-seeded Jones will have to finish higher than 12th-seed John Hunter Nemechek in the only third-round matchup that features one teammate against another.
Jones said Saturday he won’t expect spotter Will Rodgers to apprise him of Nemechek’s position as the race develops.
“No, probably not,” Jones said. “I didn’t think or know where Ricky (Stenhouse, Jr., second-round opponent) was all day [at Chicago], and then I drove it into the wall, and I kind of thought we gave that up, and then we crossed the finish line and it wasn’t a very good day and the first thing Ben (Beshore, crew chief) says is ‘well, we beat the 47 (Stenhouse).’
“And I was like, OK, that is cool. I don’t know how. I will want to know right after, for sure, if I’m not aware of where he is at. But he doesn’t need to let me know.”
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Rodgers, entered in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race as pilot of the No. 70 Cope Family Racing Chevrolet with Jones as his primary spotter, had a slightly different take.
“If we are two or three back from him, coming down to it, I may say something,” Rodgers said.
Additional matchups in Round 3 of the In-Season Challenge include No. 32 seed Ty Dillon against No. 8 seed Alex Bowman, No. 15 seed Ryan Preece battling No. 23 seed Tyler Reddick and No. 6 seed Ty Gibbs vs. No. 14 seed Zane Smith.