Late spin foils Erik Jones' attempt to beat his boss at Pocono
RELATED: Contact turns Jones around on restart | Full race results
LONG POND, Pa. -- It looked like it was going to be the teacher battling his mentor and team owner for a victory. However, Erik Jones' spin on Lap 60 ruined his chances of beating Kyle Busch in Saturday's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Pocono Mountains 150.
Running second at the time, Jones was in the middle lane challenging Busch for the lead when Austin Dillon's right front made contact with Jones' left rear, which turned the driver of the No. 4 Toyota and spun the 19-year-old into Timothy Peters.
Jones rebounded from the late-race trouble thanks to three green-white-checkered finishes to finish in 10th place for his ninth top-10 finish of the season.
After the race, Jones pulled up to Dillon's car on pit road and the two had a civil exchange discussing the incident, even shaking hands afterward. Dillon explained his side of things to Jones, who mainly just listened.
"It was a good exchange," Dillon said after the race. "I just told him the 05 (of John Wes Townley) was in my left rear quarter panel and that's what I heard. I haven't seen a replay. I just felt like I was getting pushed and I was already loose. And I felt like if I lifted, I'd wreck, too. I chose the path to sustain it. I hate it for him. I was hoping he'd be able to save it. There wasn't much he could do off of 2. I hate it for him because he's running for points."
Jones was disappointed to not get the win, especially when he was battling his boss for most of the day. Jones did edge Busch to win the 21 Means 21 Pole Award in the morning.
RELATED: Busch wins at Pocono | Jones earns fourth pole of 2015 at Pocono
"It was exciting," Jones said of racing against Busch, his truck owner, for the first time in the Camping World Truck Series. "I felt like we were definitely the two best trucks out there.
"Unfortunately, we got spun out. You know, nothing you can really do about that. A solid day for us overall. Pretty good points day with the 88 (of Matt Crafton) getting wrecked. We made up some good points. Could have made up some more had we finished first or second. But we'll take it."
Jones sits third in the point standings, but is just 16 points back of series points leader Tyler Reddick and only five back of Matt Crafton for second place.
Busch, who won the race, discussed racing against his protégé after the race.
"He wants to win and that's where it all stems from," Busch said. "It's just competition. It's just the drive. He wanted to win today. He wanted to beat the boss, and he had the opportunity to do so. I don't know that I could have passed him if he was leading. It just didn't quite work out for him today, and that's tough.
"And man, I've been there. I've hated it because you're still trying to make it in this game, and to make it in this game, the best way to do that is to win races and show people that you're the best and to not settle for second. Hopefully his top 10 will still continue to help him out through the rest of the year. I'm sure he'll still get some wins, and we can see him as a champion at the end of the year."
Saturday was a busy day for Jones, who was doing his own version of the "double." From Pocono, he headed to Iowa Speedway for Saturday night's U.S. Cellular 250 presented by New Holland where he finished seventh. Since he couldn't be in Iowa for practices and qualifying, Drew Herring shook down the No. 54 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Jones is slated to attempt a similar double on Sept. 26 when he runs the Camping World Truck Series UNOH 175 (1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM) at New Hampshire Motor Speedway before heading to Kentucky Speedway for the XFINITY Series VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM).