18-year-old comes just .005 seconds short of catching Kahne
CONCORD, N.C. — For the second straight week, Erik Jones was left to lament what could have been in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
Last week at Kansas Speedway, the difference was six laps when his Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 4 Toyota ran out of fuel. Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the difference was just five thousandths of a second, the margin of victory for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular Kasey Kahne‘s No. 00 Chevrolet in an overtime photo finish that had Jones’ crew guessing about the outcome halfway through the cool-down lap.
“I think we got him,” came the word over Jones’ radio after the drop of the checkered flag. “They haven’t said yet so hang tight.”
Seconds later came the confirmation: “Per the camera, double zero.”
Jones gave no response. He parked on pit road and dismounted against the backdrop of Kahne’s burnout, making a hasty walk toward the truck series’ garage and the KBM trailer, finding refuge in between haulers. After gathering his thoughts only briefly, the 18-year-old rookie’s reaction was equal parts dismay and disbelief.
“It sucks when it has to come down to a green-white-checkered, and the fastest truck loses the race again two weeks in a row,” said Jones, who led 88 of the race’s 139 laps. “It just sucks. We had such a good Dollar General Tundra. I just can’t believe we lost it. I don’t even know what to say, man. It really, really hurts. Really hurts.”
Jones’ reason for disappointment stemmed from the race being forced into overtime in the first place. Jones had just battled around the high side of Kahne to steer clear into the lead, with clean air and victory seemingly in sight with three laps left. But a late scrape for Daniel Hemric‘s No. 14 truck triggered the fateful caution period just before the white flag could be unfurled, forcing overtime and allowing Kahne to restart alongside Jones.
Jones chose the outside lane and the two stayed glued together in double-file formation for the duration of the two-lap shootout. But coming off Turn 4 for the final time, Kahne had just enough breathing room on the inside groove. Still, Jones wasn’t second-guessing his choice of the outside lane for the restart.
“We ran hard the whole lap,” Jones said. “I was wide open the whole lap and we got a run on him off of four and he just unfortunately side-drafted us and beat us to the line. It’s hard to stop that. I just wish there was something I could have done different to stop it, but it was honestly luck of the draw and he got the better side draft coming to the line and was able to beat us to the line.”
Though he’s failed to scratch yet in the Camping World Truck Series win column this year, Jones remains on a hot streak. The KBM prodigy ranks second in the series standings, 16 points behind reigning champion Matt Crafton, and is fresh from an striking Sprint Cup Series debut at Kansas Speedway the previous week. He’ll try to make more headway in the NASCAR XFINITY Series’ visit to Iowa Speedway, site of Sunday’s 3M 250 (2 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM).
Even though the bitter disappointment was evident in Jones’ post-race emotions, he’s impressed his share of peers in NASCAR’s top division.
“He just has a ton of raw, raw ability,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr., co-owner of Kahne’s winning truck. “Really good at getting all the speed out of the vehicle he’s driving, so there’s no question, I guess, when you put Erik in a car, a truck or whatever that you’re getting everything you can. A lot of times, you sort of wait on or maybe have doubt about whether the driver’s getting everything he can out of the car’s setup, especially when you’re dealing with a young guy.
“Is he getting everything out of the equipment and how much is it him and how much is it the car? How much do we need to work on the car, how much do we need to wait on him to sort of work his way up to that type of ability, but Erik seems to be intense and every time he’s in the car, he’s giving everything he’s capable of giving and you don’t really have to question him at all, which I think makes it fun for the guys that work over there. They’ve got to be pretty excited to see him climbing in because he’s going to run hard and fast and he’s going to be around for a long time.”