FONTANA, Calif. -- The sprawling and lightning fast Auto Club Speedway can be a little daunting for rookie drivers.
Just ask NASCAR XFINITY Series rookie Brandon Jones.
"The first time I pulled up here a couple hours ago -- man, this place is really big," Jones said on Friday at the speedway. "It looked a little intimidating when you pulled up at first."
But while Jones is contending for Sunoco Rookie of the Year, his performance on-track isn't reminiscent of a beginner. In his four starts this season, Jones, 19, has finished 11th or better in every race in his No. 33 Richard Childress Chevrolet, making his XFINITY debut on all four tracks.
For Jones, the new tracks have been opportunities to be a student of the sport, studying as much as he can as a young driver.
"The biggest thing is just trying to learn these places I haven't been to yet," Jones said. "We kind of kicked off with a pretty tough schedule going from Daytona to pretty bumpy Atlanta. ... So some of these places that I haven't seen so far, it's been kind of tough to learn right off the trailer.
"(But) every time we've unloaded so far, we've been top 10 on the speed charts, so I've been really happy about where we've been firing up at these places."
He'll hit the books again this weekend, as he makes his debut at Auto Club Speedway in Saturday's TreatMyClot.com 300 (4 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM Radio). There's uncertainty that comes with the tricky seams and speed characteristic of the California track -- but there's also confidence that comes from having strong teammates.
"I know a couple of our RCR teammates -- Brendan Gaughan being one of them -- (have) finished pretty high up," Jones said. "I've been talking to him a little bit at the race track, going back and watching a couple videos to see how they run over the seams. Like you said, that's a pretty big deal, so learn how to take that to your advantage during the race, making your car better over those is going to be a big key.
"I'm just going to try to go out there this first practice session and learn the place as best I can, get behind some people that have been here a lot and try and follow them and see if I can pick up a couple things. But I think we'll be just fine -- I think we'll be pretty fast right off the hauler and we'll start going to work on our Nexteer Chevy."