Dale Jr.: ‘He’s got a great amount of talent, just really good raw ability’
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FORT WORTH, Texas — Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski climbed out of their race cars that were parked side-by-side on pit road following Friday’s XFINITY Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. The pair exchanged post-race friendly words and laughs that reflected their longtime friendship, rather than a competitors’ relationship. With both drivers’ success and fame in the Sprint Cup Series, it was a star-studded moment.
But as both veteran drivers noted, the real star of the race was the 18-year-old who had been running both drivers down all night like he had been doing it for years: Erik Jones.
“I saw early, about a year or so ago, that he’s got a great amount of talent, just really good raw ability and seems to be a nice kid,” Earnhardt Jr. said on pit road after the race. “So, I was happy to see him succeed tonight and get a win … But I felt like he was going to be a contender. And to get a great opportunity and a great car like that, he’s making the most of it. I didn’t expect anything less.”
Earnhardt and Jones engaged in a hard-racing duel around Lap 145 for the top position. After several laps of back-and-forth action, Jones gave leader Earnhardt a bump from behind that spoke louder than any words.
“He was wanting to go by,” said Earnhardt with a chuckle. “He was probably getting tired of trying to pass me, but I was trying to make it as hard as I could. He had a really, really good car and he finally got by us and got it going. But I knew if I could keep him back there, I could make it real difficult on him and I think he was getting impatient. But that’s what you’ve got to do. I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
Less than 30 laps later, Jones was battling another veteran driver for the lead — Keselowski.
“We ran wide open there, and that’s always cool when you’re running wide open side-by-side,” Keselowski recalled after the race. “It was just a matter of who was going to lift first; neither of us lifted and he just cleared me and drove by me. Erik did a really fantastic job today.”
The win marked Jones’ first win in the XFINITY Series, something that Earnhardt can certainly relate to — he also nabbed his first win in the series in 1998 at the Lone Star track.
“I know it’s probably a big night for him – I know what that feels like,” Earnhardt said. “It’s a great place to win a race at Texas.”
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