Posted on by Reid Spencer

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — It was more of the same for Kyle Busch in Saturday’s Indiana 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but “more of the same” was anything but easy.

RELATED: Race results | Updated standings

Busch held off Justin Allgaier by .132 seconds during a five-lap run to the finish at the 2.5-mile track, but only after a hard crash that took out frontrunners Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick with seven laps left.

With a strong short-run car, combined with his unquestioned prowess on restarts, Busch took control after the final restart to win for the fourth time at the Brickyard, the fourth time in seven starts this season and the 96th time in his career, extending his series record.

In more ways than one, Busch benefited from the wreck that took out Bell and Reddick as they were battling for the lead. For one thing, it eliminated two of the strongest cars in the race. For another, it put Busch out front in clean air, greatly improving the handling of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Supra.

“It was really tough to pass, even when you had a run on a guy,” Busch said in Victory Lane. “You could pass the guys who were set up for long-runs on the straightaways but some of those other guys, like (Bell, Brandon Jones) and the JGR guys, they were stupid fast.

“We got back in traffic and just really fought the handling of this thing and got stuck around fourth place. I’m real proud of this team. This Toyota Supra was awesome today, and glad we got to take it to Victory Lane.”

Allgaier, the defending race winner, led a trio of JR Motorsports cars to top-five finishes, with Noah Gragson charging to third in the closing laps and Jeb Burton matching his career-best finish in his fifth start of the season. Justin Haley ran fifth and scored 35 points, enough to become the ninth driver to clinch a spot in the Xfinity Series Playoffs.

Three cautions in the final 14 laps doomed the chances of Allgaier, whose No. 7 Chevrolet was set up for long green-flag runs.

“Kyle’s great, especially on restarts,” said Allgaier, who led three times for 24 laps, half the total recorded by the race winner. “That’s what sets him apart in the Cup Series and here in the Xfinity Series. Our Suave Men Camaro was on rails, especially on the long runs …

“You don’t realize what it means to you until you come that close to tasting those bricks again. We’ll go to Vegas (for the regular-season finale) next week, finish out the regular season strong and take this momentum into the playoffs.”

Bell and Reddick were running up front after a restart on Lap 93 of 100, but Bell’s Toyota broke loose under Reddick’s Chevrolet in Turn 2, sending both cars hard into the outside wall and eliminating them from the race.

WATCH: Reddick, Bell wreck

Bell finished 29th, one spot ahead of Reddick.

“Of all my NASCAR crashes, this one takes the cake,” Bell said after visiting the infield care center. The wreck deprived him of a chance to win for the seventh time this season.

Brandon Jones recovered from a spin after contact with Austin Cindric’s Ford on Lap 87 to finish sixth, one position ahead of six-time winner Cole Custer. Chase Briscoe, Austin Hill and Ryan Sieg completed the top 10.

Reddick retained the series lead by 50 points over Bell and can clinch the regular-season title next Saturday by scoring 11 points.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — There’s no doubt what’s at top of mind at Hendrick Motorsports entering Sunday’s Big Machine Vodka 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET on NBC, IMS and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Getting seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson into the playoffs is the No. 1 priority for the organization, which already has three of its four drivers — Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman and William Byron — qualified for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series postseason.

RELATED: Indianapolis schedule | Driver standings

“Me personally, I want to see him get in,” said Elliott, who won at Talladega and Watkins Glen this season. “I’m a race fan first, and I want to see him do well. I’m certainly pulling for him to do that, but there is a lot of emphasis to make sure he has a fast car.

“That’s the best way to fix it — to be fast. If they are fast today, that is the main thing. Your job gets a lot easier for the weekend.”

Mission accomplished, as far as the first order of business was concerned. Johnson was fast off the truck for opening practice at the 2.5-mile speedway. He was on top of the speed chart until late in the session, when other drivers began making mock qualifying runs.

After the dust settled, Johnson was ninth fastest, with a best time of 49.261 seconds (182.700 mph).

Though the speed was encouraging, Johnson faces an uphill battle if he hopes to preserve his perfect record of qualifying for every Cup postseason. Johnson is 18 points behind Ryan Newman and Daniel Suarez, who currently are tied for 16th in the standings, the final playoff-eligible position.

Johnson said his No. 48 team has been doing a more thorough job of preparation, but it hasn’t been confined to the week before the trip to the Brickyard, where Johnson has won four times, one fewer than the record five of former teammate Jeff Gordon.

“There has been more preparation, but it really hasn’t been because of the week,” Johnson said. “It’s been since Cliff (Daniels) took over as crew chief (in late July). There are more hours and more time. … We had a Saturday night race recently, and (team members) were asked not to come to the shop, and it’s not just Cliff alone, but the energy and the brotherhood inside of the No. 48 team and how bad the guys want to perform. They are there when they don’t need to be. They’re there when they’re asked not to be.

“So, it’s pretty amazing to see the time and effort. And all of that has added up over the last couple of weeks, where our guys have been able to spend more time on the car that we brought here. So it’s hard to just look at any given week and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to do more,’ because you don’t have the time. The truck’s got to load and leave and all that stuff. But, weeks back, things started clicking, which have allowed really every car that’s gone to the track in the last three or four weeks to have more detail and more time spent on it.”

With the speed in his car, Johnson at least has a hope of making the playoffs on points, but the definitive path would be a fifth victory at the Brickyard. Eighty-four races have passed since Johnson last went to Victory Lane at Dover in 2017.

“Yeah, it would be a heck of a story to tie Jeff with five here and to come through a drought and all the things that we all know,” Johnson said. “You guys (media) had to write about it and talk about it. To have all that come to a conclusion and lock myself into the playoffs would be one hell of a story. Hopefully, that is the story.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — William Byron was a visible mixture of raw excitement and tempered enthusiasm Saturday morning before the opening round of practice for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular-season finale at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

For the first time in his two-year Cup career, Byron has secured a position in the NASCAR Playoffs. And while he acknowledged a bit of the pressure was lifted for Sunday’s Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard (2 p.m. ET. on NBC, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the 21-year-old Charlotte native was fine with high expectations. He’s used to success.

RELATED: Indianapolis schedule | Lap averages

And this weekend, Byron’s success could make NASCAR history as the series prepares for the 10-race playoff portion of the season beginning next week at Las Vegas. Should Byron win the Busch Pole Award on Sunday (10:30 a.m. ET on NBCSN, IMS Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), he would be the first driver in history to win the pole position at the sport’s four biggest races — the Daytona 500, Charlotte’s Coca-Cola 600, Darlington’s Southern 500 and the Brickyard 400 — all in the same season.

Of course, for this former NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, it’s where he finishes that will matter the most, and Byron is optimistic about his chances at Indy, where he won in 2017 en route to the Xfinity title.

“I think it means a lot just for the sole reason that it’s the Brickyard 400 and this place means a lot to win here,” Byron said. “I don’t know if it would mean as much if it was just a typical race and we were already in the playoffs, but for it being the race that it is, it would mean a lot (to win).

“Plus, it would be such a big race to win right before you start the playoffs. I think (a win) would carry a lot of momentum into the first round.”

Momentum is certainly something Byron has benefited from this year. And he credits a lot of that to his new crew chief Chad Knaus, who previously led his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson to seven Cup titles.

In Byron’s 2018 rookie Monster Energy Series season, he had four top 10s and no top fives. He’s had four top 10s in the last two months under Knaus’ guidance, including a career best runner-up finish in the summer Daytona race. In all, Byron has eight top 10s and two top fives — career highs — with 11 races still remaining in the season.

And it all translates into a hefty dose of playoff confidence at just the right time. Byron is currently ranked 13th in the point standings and has already clinched his postseason berth.

“I’m excited,’’ Byron said of his championship position. “I don’t really know what to do or what to expect or anything. But obviously having been in the series last year and having seen the way that the races played out, it’s just all about getting down to business and pretty much doing the same thing that you’ve been doing to get here and just try to eliminate mistakes.

“I think that is the biggest thing. I’m going to try to definitely have really clean races and that starts this weekend for us and just trying to build the momentum for it and make sure we execute a good race.”

Byron has previous top-10 finishes at three of the playoff venues — an eighth-place finish at the Dover 1-miler earlier this season, ninth at Phoenix last year and a top 10 at Texas both last year (10th) and this year (sixth).

“I think anywhere we’ve been and then go a second time, like Vegas and Richmond’’ are places Byron says he feels especially optimistic about. “That second or third round, Texas would be a good track for us. I think Texas and Kansas would be good, too, because we’ve been there already this year.

“Anywhere that Chad (Knaus) and I go for the second time is going to pay off.’’

Posted on by Staff Report

Paul Menard snuck into the top spot on the leaderboard just before the end of final Monster Energy Series practice, and Denny Hamlin smacked his No. 11 Toyota hard into the wall after the red-and-black flag already had been displayed as his car erupted into flames at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday.

RELATED: Final practice results

The 50-minute practice session had already ended when Hamlin’s car did not turn as it approached Turn 4, it careened into the wall and fire trailed behind his rear bumper. He brought his car to a stop soon afterward, and exited the vehicle. His crew rolled out his backup car immediately.

“It was big for sure,” Hamlin told NBCSN of the end of practice incident. “It was the last corner and I think the red flag had been out for a minute or so. We had just got into Turn 1 when the red went out and we were going to finish our lap. It just blew a right-front. We hadn’t seen any wear issues so we might have run something over or whatever.”

Meanwhile, Menard’s lap of 185.079 mph in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford bettered Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s second-fastest lap of 184.151 mph in his No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.

Last week’s Darlington winner Erik Jones in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (183.550 mph), Chris Buescher in the No. 37 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet (183.385 mph) and Matt DiBenedetto in the No. 95 Leavine Family Racing Toyota (183.050 mph) rounded out the top five.

The Monster Energy Series returns to the track Sunday morning for Busch Pole Qualifying at 10:35 a.m. ET (NBCSN/NBC Sports App) before the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard (2 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

FIRST PRACTICE
Chip Ganassi Racing drivers Kyle Larson and Kurt Busch topped the leaderboard in first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with Larson wheeling his No. 42 Chevrolet around the 2.5-mile track for a fast lap of 185.025 mph on Saturday.

RELATED: First practice results

Busch, meanwhile, was second-fastest at 184.763 mph in his No. 1 Chevrolet in the practice session in preparation for Sunday’s regular-season finale, the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard (2 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Brad Keselowski in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford (184.600 mph), Chase Elliott in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (184.305 mph) and Bubba Wallace in the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet (183.685 mph) rounded out the top five.

Jimmie Johnson, who is a four-time winner at Indianapolis and is currently below the cutline for the 16-driver playoff field, led for much of the session, but wound up with the ninth-fastest lap of 182.700 mph in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

The No. 95 Toyota of Matt DiBenedetto served a 15-minute practice hold at the end of the session for failing inspection twice at Darlington last week.

Posted on by Pat DeCola

SPEEDWAY, Ind. – “Meet me in Temecula,” NASCAR-style.

Tempers flared during NASCAR Xfinity Series final practice Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when Mike Harmon and Michael Annett collided as Harmon was attempting to come down pit road – sending Annett’s bumper flying through the air.

Annett then confronted Harmon in the garage area, sticking his head in the window of the No. 74 Chevrolet to talk things over before a fiery interview on NBCSN in which he said he was “arguing with an idiot.”

Harmon later saw the video, prompting perhaps the tweet of the year.

Harmon felt the name-calling was unnecessary and told NASCAR.com on Saturday morning that he apologized profusely and took full responsibility for the incident.

Here’s his take on the contact itself:

“Christopher Bell got under me and I got out of the groove, so it kills your lap, so instead of driving two-and-a-half miles, I pitted and the spotter said ‘that’s clear’ and clear is clear to me, so I committed. Then the 1 (of Annett) came by. It actually kind of scared me; I wasn’t expecting him or anybody to be there. I thought ‘Aw, man.’ I felt terrible about it.”

And the ensuing confrontation in his garage stall:

“He came over hollering with the F word. What the eff this, and all that kind of stuff. I said, ‘Man, look, it’s my fault, OK? I apologize. You think I’d tear your car up and my car up on purpose in practice? That’s crazy.’

“I apologized to the man, told him what happened and then he wanted to take it to another level, acting disrespectful and calling me names and that kind of stuff, and I don’t appreciate that. I’m not going to stand for it. I messed up, and I manned up and said I messed up. It’s really hard to spot here. It’s hard to see. It was a mistake, we’re human.”

Harmon said that he and Annett have “never had any problem before” and that he recognizes the JR Motorsports driver is in faster equipment. He says he moves over for him every week and tries not to get in his way.

But it’s a two-way street.

“The deal is, I respect everybody and I demand respect. I was busy working on my car ’til the garage closed and I saw the video where he called me an idiot and said I didn’t belong out there, I don’t take that. I had to do something. I’m not going to look like a wimp,” Harmon said. “I know we set examples for people and got kids watching and all that, but you can’t roll over, you know? This country wasn’t built that way and racing wasn’t built that way. I’m not going to put up with it. You might be able to outrun me (on the track), but once we get out of the cars it’s man-to-man.”

Annett didn’t make the drive over to Temecula Applebee’s, and it’s probably a good thing for all parties involved that he didn’t.

“I guess (if he did) we’d probably have been taken to jail by the time we got through, because if he comes over running his mouth, I’m going to close it for him,” Harmon said. “I’ve had enough. He’d do me one, but it’d be on, I can tell you that.

“I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to show up. It’s easy to go in front of a camera and run your mouth but do it face-to-face, man-to-man. That’s what this is about. I doubt (we’ll have a face-to-face). If he knows what’s good for him, we won’t.”

Posted on by Pat DeCola

SPEEDWAY, Ind. – A year ago, Justin Allgaier was squatting down to kiss the fabled bricks after winning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, fulfilling his lifelong dream after a childhood spent making the three-and-a-half hour trek from Illinois to sit in the grandstands countless times as a kid.

The past year, however, has been borderline nightmarish.

The Xfinity Series’ resident veteran captured the victory in last year’s event at the Brickyard, a whopping fifth victory in his best statistical season to date. With a head of steam rolling into the playoffs, Allgaier was the clear frontrunner for the title … eventually won by then-teammate Tyler Reddick.

RELATED: Indianapolis weekend schedule

A near-comical stretch of bad luck in the ’18 Xfinity Series Playoffs saw him endure multiple wrecks and four finishes of 15th or worse in just seven races en route to a third-place points finish — and see a magical season fizzle out with a whimper.

“Last year, to win five races, I look back and I’m like, ‘Holy crap, that was incredible,’” Allgaier said Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, site of Saturday’s Indiana 250 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “But on the flip side, we got to the playoffs and it was so lackluster and we did such a bad job in the playoffs that you go, ‘At this point does winning five races really even matter?’”

This season offered a fresh start for Allgaier to shake off the disappointment at the tail-end of last year, and the ship appeared to be righted after a pair of top-three finishes to open ’19.

And then the wheels fell off, almost literally.

Allgaier saw just one top-10 finish over the next five races, culminating in an inauspicious 30th-place result at Bristol Motor Speedway in the spring — despite leading a race-high 138 laps. That’s been a particularly apt microcosm of Allgaier’s season to date. He nearly repeated the effort at Bristol a few weeks ago – leading 131 laps this time – en route to an eighth-place finish after a tire went down while leading in the closing laps.

“Bristol was funny,” Allgaier said. “We ran the fastest lap of the race with 20 laps to go on a restart and then to have a tire have a puncture in it with eight laps or nine laps to go, you look at it and go, ‘How does that happen? How do you get debris to cut the inside of that tire with that few laps to go and there’s no damage to anything else?’

“The way I look at it is God’s got a plan for everything, and if I go to the race track and give 100% every week and I do everything I can do, then the results are what they are. I don’t feel like we’ve done anything that I would go back and say, ‘Hey, I would do something different.’ There’s not a race this season where I’d do anything differently. Every race, I would’ve done the exact same thing.

“The old saying is, ‘I’d rather be lucky than good any day,’ and this year has been a true case of that. We’ve been good on multiple occasions and haven’t had the luck to go along with it. We’ve had fast race cars; we’ve done everything right. We just don’t have anything to show for it.”

The JR Motorsports driver slowly has been putting the pieces back together week by week since, compiling six top-three finishes in the 11 races from Richmond to Watkins Glen. From Kentucky to Darlington, Allgaier has put together the second-longest top-10 streak of his Xfinity career.

The speed’s there. The talent’s there. The veteran mindset is there.

The results are starting to come.

Allgaier was seventh and sixth in Friday’s pair of practice sessions, respectively, and perhaps the winds of change are beginning to blow his way and shift the tide in his favor for once.

MORE: Full practice results

“I hope so. The speed has been way better the last two months. … We didn’t fire off this season where we wanted to be at, there’s no question. We weren’t bad, we just weren’t as good as the ‘Big 3’ (of Christopher Bell, Cole Custer and Reddick),” Allgaier said. “I feel like we’ve definitely bridged that gap. We’ve had cars capable of being as good or better than (they have). We just need that racing luck to go our way. If we can do that, I think we have a valid shot at winning races and ultimately going for a championship.

“Hopefully, you pick up a win here to wrap up the end of the regular season and really kick off the beginning of the playoffs. … Last year, we won five before the playoffs and didn’t win any in the playoffs. This year, maybe we don’t win any in the regular season and we go win five in the playoffs. We’ll see what happens.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Kyle Busch walked around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway garage Friday afternoon feeling equal parts ambitious and already highly accomplished.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver locked down the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular-season championship last weekend at Darlington Raceway – his second regular-season title in as many years. And the clinch comes a full week before the series’ regular-season finale, Sunday’s Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard (2 p.m. ET on NBC, IMS Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis track.

RELATED: Full Indianapolis schedule

Busch was third-fastest in the opening Xfinity Series practice Friday. He’ll suit up for opening Monster Energy Series practice Saturday morning. Qualifying will take place Sunday at 10:30 a.m. ET – the morning of the Brickyard 400.

Although it was a lengthy and tight trophy battle between Busch and defending series champion Joey Logano for the regular season title, Busch set the standard from the get-go. He was the first driver to earn four victories (at Phoenix, Auto Club, Martinsville and the first Pocono race) and has a series-best 21 top 10s – including a record-tying 11 consecutive to start the season – to pair with 13 top-five finishes to date.

The 2015 Monster Energy Series champion Busch won both the 2015 and 2016 Brickyard 400 races, joining four-time race winner Jimmie Johnson as the only two active drivers to have earned multiple wins here.

This weekend, Busch will compete in both Indianapolis Motor Speedway races, including Saturday afternoon’s Indiana 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race. Busch is a three-time Xfinity race winner at Indy – taking the trophy from the pole position in all three wins (2013, 2015 and 2016) – and his combined five wins in the two NASCAR series equals the most stock car victories at the track. NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon won five Brickyard 400s.

RELATED: JGR eyes royal sweep at Indy

Busch said Friday during a break in Xfinity Series practice that having the regular-season title already wrapped up does allow a bit of breathing room for this particular race weekend.

“Definitely way better to have it done,’’ Busch said. “Last year we didn’t have it done, so we had to points race and got it done (in the race).

“This time around we don’t have to points race at all, we can basically just focus on what we need to focus on to try to win the race. So when you got to throw away a stage or something like that to set yourself up for the end of the race, you can do that.’’

This sense of everything-to-gain is particularly bad news for Busch’s competition this weekend – and sets the tone for Busch’s fifth consecutive playoff run.

Busch has won three or more races in 10 of his 15 full-time Monster Energy Series seasons. Twice he has hoisted eight trophies in a year – 2018 and 2008 – yet neither time did he get to celebrate with the season championship trophy.

So in the midst of another chart-topping, regular-season championship year, Busch has set his eyes on navigating the 10-race playoffs. And, again, he’ll have the benefit of a hard-earned points cushion. The regular-season title – which he battled Team Penske’s Logano for – means an extra 15 points to start the playoff run. He also has a series-best 10 stage wins.

Busch has won at all 10 playoff venues – although his win at Charlotte Motor Speedway last May was on the traditional 1.5-mile oval, not the new Roval road course used in the October playoff race.

Twenty-one of Busch’s 55 career victories have come at playoff venues and he has multiple wins at Richmond (six), Dover (three), Texas (three), Phoenix (three) and Martinsville (two). However, Busch has earned only eight of those 21 wins during the playoff stretch of the season.

Last year he led the playoff standings going into Phoenix – the next-to-last race of the year that decides which four drivers advance to the Homestead-Miami season finale – and capped that round with the victory at ISM Raceway.

The four championship challengers finished 1-2-3-4 at Homestead  – Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, and Busch. So, even after Busch’s amazing eight-win effort, Logano hoisted the Cup championship trophy.

All the momentum Busch and his No. 18 JGR Toyota team rightly carry now will be useful both for practical purposes and motivational cache.

This weekend, Busch is an absolute favorite to visit Indy’s historic Victory Lane – either in the Xfinity or Cup Series. Or both. And with the regular-season title locked up already, these races are about establishing a high team standard and putting the right foot forward.

“It is what it is right now,’’ Busch said. “We could have eight or 10 wins right now if all things went our way, but it doesn’t ever seem like it does. So, we’ll just keeping working hard and doing what we need to be doing.

“You know you can talk about championship runs and anything else right now, but the fact of the matter is it doesn’t matter. If you get crashed out or have things happen to you two races in a row, all those points go to nil. There’s too many things that can happen so you’ve just got to race it out.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Erik Jones has signed a contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing, the organization announced Friday.

Jones will continue to drive the No. 20 Toyota Camry in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2020 alongside teammates Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr.

RELATED: Key drivers in Silly Season

“I’m so happy to finally have my plans for 2020 confirmed and to talk about it,” Jones said in a team release. “I’m excited to be staying with Joe Gibbs Racing and the 20 team and to continue the success that we have built over the last two years in the Cup Series. I put my heart and soul into this and this race team. This is my living and how I want to make a career and what I want to do. I’ve been racing with JGR since 2014 and it’s really cool to be able to continue with the foundation we’ve built over the years and hopefully win more races and contend for championships together.”

Running in his third full-time Monster Energy Series season and second with JGR after moving from Furniture Row Racing in 2018, Jones has recorded two victories at NASCAR’s premier level — the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in July 2018 at Daytona International Speedway and the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington earlier this month.

RELATED: Jones wins at Darlington | Drivers to win in 100th start

Jones is the only driver in Cup Series history to have his first two wins occur at Daytona and Darlington. The 23-year-old Byron, Michigan, native qualified for the NASCAR Playoffs for the second consecutive season thanks to that win at Darlington.

Jones began his NASCAR national series career with Kyle Busch Motorsports in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, earning seven victories and the 2015 championship. He moved up to the Xfinity Series with JGR for a full-time stint in 2016. Jones has recorded nine Xfinity race wins.

“Erik has accomplished so much in our sport already and yet, he really is just at the start of a long career,” said Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing. “He’s been a part of Joe Gibbs Racing for almost his entire professional career and we’re excited to see what the future holds for him.”