The 18-year-old driver will be running his first full season in the Truck Series
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Erik Jones' progression in the early stages of his career at the NASCAR national series level has validated his inclusion in the NASCAR Next class of up-and-comers. Documenting the progress, however, has been a sporadic process due in large part to his part-time schedule the last two years.
Entering 2015, the 18-year-old Jones has a chance to see what he can do over the course of a full campaign as he embarks on his first complete season for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The goals are ambitious -- they involve being competitive with two-time champion Matt Crafton, the benchmark of the series the last two seasons.
"On the truck side of things, definitely the driver's championship. I don't see a reason why we couldn't compete for that with Matt," Jones said during last week's Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour presented by Technocom. "He's going to be tough to beat and he's shown it the last two seasons. He's just extremely consistent and that's probably something we're going to have to adjust a little bit for. We've been a little erratic at times, but I don't see why we can't go out and be more consistent and be able to run top-five every week and have a strong average finish, and at the same time win a few races along the way."
Jones has been steadier than he gives himself credit for, even in just a limited time in NASCAR's national tours. He already has four Camping World Truck Series victories in just 17 career starts, and made his first foray into the NASCAR XFINITY Series last season with three top-10s in his first three efforts. For all of his national series appearances, Jones has finished in the top 10 in 16 of his 20 races.
Jones is scheduled to run the No. 4 Toyota for KBM, which has won the series' team owner championship the last two years running. Jones played a large part in helping last year's cause, but says taking square aim at unseating Crafton for the driver's title will require keeping both errors and bad luck to a minimum.
"It's not going to be easy by any means, and it's going to come down to really who is the most consistent, and who can consistently finish a little bit better than the other," Jones said. "He's not going to be a guy to go out and wreck out of four or five races in a season, he's going to probably finish every one of them and not wreck, and he's probably going to finish all of them pretty close to the top-five, if not in the top-five, and he's probably going to win a race or two. I think we just have to match that and best it at a few places and try to put ourselves in the best position going into Homestead."
Jones grew up in multiple ways last year, earning his high school diploma in a cap and gown during pre-race driver introductions at Texas Motor Speedway, just one week after his 18th birthday. The latter milestone gave him NASCAR clearance to race on tracks of 1.25 miles or longer, opening up more opportunities to gain experience.
His rapid learning pace has helped him secure a 10-race schedule this year with Toyota affiliate Joe Gibbs Racing in the XFINITY Series, a circuit where he aims to make the most of being on the track.
"Just getting more seat time," Jones said. "It's obviously a bigger step to the XFINITY Series than I thought it would be, not to say that I don't think we'll figure it out along the way. I think if by the end of the season, if we could at least be in the mix and competing for wins, that would be a great step for us."