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XFINITY Series points leader discusses what he hopes the future holds

NEWTON, Iowa – When Austin Dillon wrapped up his 2013 NASCAR XFINITY Series championship run, he’d run two full-time Camping World Truck seasons (winning a title in his second) another two at the XFINITY level and had a ride with the sport’s most famous number – 3 – waiting for him in the Sprint Cup Series.

Austin’s brother, Ty, is well on his way to his own XFINITY Series championship – in his second campaign after two full-time seasons in the Truck Series, no less – as the points leader after the season’s first nine races.

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Only difference is, with Richard Childress Racing‘s three-car stable occupied by Austin, Ryan Newman and Paul Menard, there’s no clear option for Ty to advance to.

That doesn’t mean Ty and his grandfather and RCR team owner, Richard Childress, aren’t coming up with a plan.

"We’ve definitely talked about (my Cup plans for 2016) and I think it’s our goal," Ty said Saturday at Iowa Speedway, site of Sunday’s 3M 250 (2 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM). "It’s my goal and my grandfather and I have talked about it a lot, (running) in Cup next year.

"Still working on things, but that’s next year. I think if we win the championship this year, it’ll make plans easier to come by."

Coming off a championship certainly helped Austin’s case, as he had big shoes to fill and doubters to quiet, stepping into a car that adorns the number Dale Earnhardt made famous. The only problem with Ty’s plans for next year is that there’s no obvious car to step into, famous or not.

It’s conceivable that the No. 33 Circle Sport Chevrolet in which, RCR has an alliance with and the car that Ty has made his four Cup starts in over the past two years, could be transformed into a fourth Childress entry, but nothing has been said to indicate this.

Expansion has been a trend the past two seasons with Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing going to four-car teams. JGR added a fourth team for the 2015 season to compete with other four-car stables in SHR and Hendrick Motorsports, but the organization has had some ups and downs in the early going since expanding to four cars.

Either way, Ty is focusing on the task at hand.

"We just have to focus on my job, and that’s to win races," the 23-year-old driver said.

"Hopefully sponsorship and everything will come together, but (running Cup in 2016) is our full intention."

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18-year-old didn’t live typical teenage life

NEWTON, Iowa — No high school dances, no high school football games and no NASCAR XFINITY Series starts.

While it might be too late to change those first two, Ben Rhodes is set to make his NXS debut Sunday at Iowa Speedway in the 3M 250 (2 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1), his first of 10 scheduled 2015 starts for JR Motorsports.

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As one of the sport’s hottest prospects, the NASCAR Next alum has spent a fair share of his high school years, well, away from high school. His efforts are paying off, as the 18-year-old won five of 16 races on his way to a 2014 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East title and finished in the top 10 in three of his four Camping World Truck Series races in the No. 32 last year — both of which helped lead to his JRM shot.

So the fact that Rhodes missed his Holy Cross High School (Louisville, Kentucky) graduation on Friday night and will get his diploma during driver intros on Sunday like Erik Jones at Texas last year — albeit without the cap and gown — doesn’t faze him.

"For me, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, because I’ve already missed so much and when it comes to high school in the first place, I haven’t been to a single dance, I haven’t been to a single football game, none of that," Rhodes said Saturday. "I’ve already missed everything, so why not throw graduation in there, too? I know that’s probably a bad way to look at it, but I’m being optimistic. This is what I love to do. This is what I want to make a career out of and this is my first opportunity out of hopefully a long career. I’m going to make the most of it. This is a wonderful opportunity JR Motorsports has given me. I’ve just got to do my best and work as hard as I can."

That said, Rhodes did still have to finish his year out, Senioritis or not.

"Senioritis kicked in as soon as senior year started. It was pretty bad for me," Rhodes said. "By the time I was there in high school and I was doing everything I was doing over the summer; living somewhere else, working on the cars in the shop every day, it was difficult for me to come back and completely change my lifestyle from being race-focused every single day to what is "To Kill A Mockingbird"?

"Actually, we didn’t read that, we read "The Possibility of Evil" and all this other junk. I shouldn’t say junk. (English teacher Mrs. Cheryl) Feathers will get mad at me."

Since the announcement that he’d be joining the organization on a part-time, developmental basis, Rhodes has been in constant contact with everyone at JR Motorsports — the drivers, the crew chiefs, the shop men, the engine men. He’s doing all he can to absorb and learn everything he can to ensure this opportunity doesn’t go unfulfilled, starting with Iowa.

One JRM employee, in particular, that has been extra helpful?

Chase Elliott.

"I called him coming down here and I said, ‘Chase, I need some guidance. What happens? What goes on?’ and we talked for about 30 minutes on the phone about just race runs, how the track changes, different quirks of this car and stuff that you have to work on," said Rhodes. "He helped me out a lot. I’ve talked to Regan (Smith) a little bit, too. Over the course of the season, going to different tracks with Kevin (Harvick) and Dale (Earnhardt Jr.), they’ve shed a lot of light on this subject as well.

"It’s been interesting. A huge learning curve. I will say these (XFINITY) cars are pretty edgy. There’s a lot of stuff going on that I’m not used to; lot of stuff that I’m learning."

Rhodes’ first start coming at Iowa was likely by design, as the young driver has already accumulated four starts at the 0.875-mile track in the K&N Series, winning here last year as the first leg of a four-race win streak that propelled him to the title.

So while he’s never been behind the wheel of a NXS Chevrolet Camaro prior to Friday’s practices (16th, fifth) and qualifying (14th) sessions, the bumps and feel of this short track are nothing new to him.

"I think time on the track was pretty huge for me. At least it gives me the confidence coming into the race, but then also how the cars race on the track, it’s not the exact same because you have to move around a lot more for the aero in these cars, but I feel like the grooves are similar. The grooves are the same; you can move up, you can move down. The overall experience on how the track changes throughout runs, I think is pretty comparable.

"It gives me a lot of confidence knowing that I have a win here and I have a trophy that I wake up next to. It makes me feel good."

Now that high school is behind him and his future is in focus, Rhodes can put 100 percent of his effort into competing on the race track, and not splitting time unraveling the mystery of Boo Radley or deciding who he would’ve asked to the senior prom.

"I feel like racing is my life and it’s what I want to do, but at the same time it would’ve been cool to experience some of the stuff that everybody else has, but I’ve been used to sacrificing that stuff in my life from the time I was 7," Rhodes said. "I never played any other sports. I came home and worked on go-karts every single day after school and did my homework and prepared for the next race.

"It’s what I know, but it would’ve been cool to experience that and maybe make a few more friends, but I wouldn’t trade it for what I’m doing."

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Piece of lead off another car damages No. 55 ride, hits driver in helmet

Photo credit: @JasonToy1

NEWTON, Iowa – Talk about a welcome back gift.
 
Jamie Dick, driver/owner of the No. 55 Viva Motorsports Chevrolet, returned to competition at Iowa Speedway on Saturday for the first time since being diagnosed with new onset diabetes in March. It started off with a bang — literally.
 
While coming back onto the track from pit road, a piece of lead came off of the No. 4 car driven by Ross Chastain, impaling Dick’s Camaro in the upper left portion of its windshield. The hit was so hard, it destroyed the laminated windshield and protruded through, hitting and leaving a noticeable dent in Dick’s helmet.

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"It was a rough return (to the track)," Dick joked in between practice sessions for Sunday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series 3M 250 (2 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM). "I was following another car out and when we pulled off pit road and got on the race track, I saw a piece of something; I thought it was a brake deck hose because it was silver and cylindrical. When we got down into the corner, I saw another piece of that fly out and I kind of dodged it.

"Then a split second after that, the lead hit the windshield. I don’t know if it was lead or tungsten, but whatever it was, it hit the windshield. I didn’t even see it before it hit, I just saw the windshield cave in and I felt it. I didn’t even realize it hit me (in the helmet) until we came in. I might’ve felt it, but everything happened so fast you don’t know exactly when you feel it."
 
Dick was checked for concussion symptoms and cleared in the infield care center and he said he felt "fine." His car, on the other hand, not so much.

The single-car No. 55 team (which also employs Jeffery Earnhardt as a part-time driver) was forced to use a backup car for the second session and planned on replacing the backup car’s engine with a separate backup engine after an oil issue cropped up in the replacement.
 
For a driver that’s already conquered a mountain of adversity already this season in the form of his new disease just to get back to racing, Saturday’s events certainly didn’t make things any easier. Dick immediately received plenty of support from his peers, as Ty Dillon and several other drivers came over to his garage stall after practice ended to check on him.
 
Chastain and team owner Johnny Davis did come by to apologize to Dick and make sure he was OK. While it wasn’t necessarily his fault, Chastain also tweeted a full apology shortly after the incident.

NASCAR officials were also quick to the scene.

"NASCAR was there right away inspecting and seeing what happened," Dick said. "The laminated windshield did its job, which is the good part, and that’s something they implemented a year ago or so. That held up or else it would’ve been a much worse day."
 
While Dick said it isn’t really for him to say whether or not the No. 4 team should be penalized for what happened, he mentioned he "would be very surprised if there wasn’t one."
 
NASCAR XFINITY Series director Wayne Auton addressed the situation Saturday afternoon and indicated the issue would be brought up during Tuesday’s debrief at the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina.
 
"Number one, safety is our biggest concern out of anything that we do in motorsports," Auton said. "It’s a sport that there’s 10,000 revolving pieces 24/7 when vehicles are on the race track or they’re sitting here in the garage area.
 
"Notoriously, penalties are discussed on Tuesdays and that will definitely be discussing that one Tuesday. Any time that we have found weight coming out of race cars on the race track, we’ve been pretty harsh about it. We have to be. That’s part of it. People are sitting up here in the grandstands and drivers sitting inside these race cars. We’ll discuss it Tuesday … pretty confident something will come out of that."

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Polesitter holds off Kevin Harvick on final 10-lap segment

RELATED: Full race results | SHOP: Winner’s gear

CONCORD, N.C. — With a deft move with three laps left in Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Denny Hamlin delivered the first victory in the non-points showcase event to Joe Gibbs Racing and to Toyota.
 
As he drove into Turn 1 to start Lap 97, with Kevin Harvick glued to his bumper and ready to make a run at the $1 million first prize, Hamlin moved up a lane in the corner and took Harvick’s line away, causing Harvick’s No. 4 Chevrolet to lose momentum.

“It was more defense than anything, but it turned into offense for me," Hamlin said. "He (Harvick) kept getting closer and closer, and eventually he gets to that right rear quarter panel, and your race is done. Initially, I was looking in my mirror, and I knew it was going to be a defensive move to take his line.

"But I was just going to have to do something different, because I was starting to lose time. My laps time were dropping off, and I just had to do something different to try to salvage a win, and that was obviously the key move for us."

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Harvick didn’t disagree with that assessment.

"I had committed to the center of the corner and just really lost the front of the car up the race track, had to get out of the throttle," Harvick explained. "As soon as Denny moved up that one time it kind of took the air off. … Once I got to the middle of the corner the car just washed all the way up the race track and I had to lift way out of the gas to get the car back off the wall."

If that was the on-track move that made the difference, the real Saturday night heroes were the crew members on Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota, who gained five spots for their driver during mandatory four-tire pits stops before the race’s final 10-lap segment.
 
Hamlin led the field to the green for the final segment and stayed in front the rest of the way, beating Harvick to the finish line by .823 seconds.
 
Kurt Busch ran third, followed by Jeff Gordon (making his final All-Star appearance), Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch, who showed excellent speed in his first competition since breaking his right leg and left foot in an XFINITY Series race at Daytona on Feb. 21.
 
Brad Keselowski took the lead after the first segment, thanks to a two-tire call by crew chief Paul Wolfe. Though Kurt Busch started the second segment with four fresh tires, Keselowski was able to keep the No, 41 Chevrolet at bay throughout the run.
 
Kurt Busch led one lap during the battle, nosing ahead at the stripe, but Keselowski pinned him down on the inside through Turns 1 and 2 and regained the top spot. Ultimately, Keselowski finished .349 seconds ahead of Busch in segment No. 2.
 
Both Keselowski and Busch took four tires between the second and third segments, and Keselowski led every lap en route to winning the third segment. Kevin Harvick got past Busch for second with four laps left.
 
But Kurt Busch restarted fifth to begin segment No. 4 and split the middle with a bold move into Turn 1. Three laps into the run, Busch passed Denny Hamlin for the lead, with Hamlin suffering the consequences of a two-tire track-position call that put him on the front row for the start of the segment.
 
Keeping Harvick a safe distance behind him, Busch won the fourth segment by 1.693 seconds over his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, and the cars entered pit road during the caution before the final 10-lap shootout in order of average finish over the first four segments.
 
The top five entering the pits were Keselowski, Busch, Kasey Kahne, Harvick and Jeff Gordon, but Hamlin was first off pit road from stall No. 1, and Keselowski drew a speeding penalty that dropped him to the back of the field for the start of segment No. 5.

"I knew that was the race, and I went for it," said Keselowski, who sped up in the final timed segment in an effort to beat Hamlin off put road.

That left Hamlin and Busch on the front row for the restart, with Harvick and Kahne behind them.

Notes: Kahne passed Hamlin, the pole winner on Lap 15 and went on to win the first segment. … Danica Patrick took her car behind the wall with engine issues on lap 58 but returned to the track during segment No. 4, having lost 32 laps for repairs. … Greg Biffle, who transferred into the All-Star race from Friday night’s Sprint Showdown, brushed the Turn 4 wall twice during the first segment and was never a factor thereafter.

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See where drivers will pit for Saturday’s Sprint All-Star Race (9 p.m. ET, FS1)

RELATED: Sprint All-Star Race starting lineup

Denny Hamlin was fastest in the unique NASCAR Sprint All-Star Qualifying format with two laps and a trip down pit road. He will pit in the first stall for his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race (Saturday, 9 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM).

The rest of the field will lineup on pit road in the order that each driver qualified with an open pit stall in front and behind each team’s box.

Greg Biffle was second-fastest and will pit in the third stall. Third-fastest was Brad Keselowski, who will pit in the fifth stall. Clint Bowyer, who like Biffle raced into Saturday’s event in the Sprint Showdown, will pit in the seventh stall. Kasey Kahne was fifth in qualifying and will pit in the ninth stall. Danica Patrick qualified sixth and will pit in the 11th stall.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. qualified seventh and will pit in the 13th stall. Aric Almirola was eighth in qualifying and will park in stall 15. In his final NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, Jeff Gordon qualified ninth and will be in the 17th stall on pit road. Carl Edwards rounded out the top 10 in qualifying, and his No. 19 car will pit in the 19th stall at the start/finish line.

There will be three open stalls before Joey Logano, who qualified 11th, will pit in 23rd box. Four-time NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race winner Jimmie Johnson hopes to extend his all-time record after qualifying 12th and pitting in the 25th stall. AJ Allmendinger qualified 13th and will pit in the 27th stall. Last year’s race winner, Jamie McMurray, qualified 14th and will pit in the 29th stall.

Tony Stewart qualified 15th and will pit in the 31st stall. His Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, Kurt Busch, qualified 16th and will pit in the 33rd stall.

There will be three more open stalls before Matt Kenseth, who qualified 17th, pits in the 37th stall. Ryan Newman qualified 18th and will pit in the 39th stall. In his first race since February, Kyle Busch will pit in the 41st stall follwing a 19th-place qualifying effort that saw him overshoot his pit stall. Kevin Harvick qualified 20th after a pit crew penalty, and he will pit in the 43rd stall at the entrance to pit road off of Turn 4.

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Catch up on segment winners during the race

RELATED: Full race results

Pole winner Denny Hamlin won the 31st annual NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, and the $1 million that comes with it, at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday night.

Hamlin led all 10 laps of the fifth and final portion of the event.

Points leader and defending series champion Kevin Harvick finished second, followed by Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth.

Brad Keselowski, who led a race-high 49 laps, was penalized for speeding on pit road prior to the final restart.

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Segment 4: Kurt Busch won the fourth and final 25-lap segment.

The lead changed hands three times in the fourth segment. Pole winner Denny Hamlin passed Keselowski on Lap 77, but quickly gave up the lead to Kurt Busch on the next lap.

Kevin Harvick finished second in the fourth segment, followed by Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Kasey Kahne. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle drew pit road penalties between the third and fourth segments.

Segment 3: Keselowski won the third 25-lap segment, leading from start to finish.

After starting the race last, points leader Harvick placed second in the third segment. Kurt Busch was third, followed by Logano and Kahne.

Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle and Hamlin were all penalized for pit road infractions after Lap 50. Danica Patrick had to pit on Lap 58 with smoke spewing from her engine.

Segment 2: Keselowski took the lead from Kahne on the restart and won the second 25-lap segment. Keselowski had to hold off Kurt Busch, who hounded him most of the way.

Hamlin reported a vibration on Lap 38 after dropping out of the top 5. Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch, who started the day 19th out of 20, finished seventh in the segment — one spot ahead of Hamlin.

Segment 1: Kahne won the first 25-lap segment at the 31st annual NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday night. Kahne, who started fifth, passed polesitterHamlin on Lap 15 and led the rest of the segment. Hamlin finished second, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Keselowski and Kurt Busch.

Jamie McMurray won last year’s race. Jimmie Johnson has won the event a record four times, and Jeff Gordon is a three-time winner.

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Greg Biffle joins Hamlin on front row for Saturday’s race

RELATED: Full qualifying results

Denny Hamlin will start first in the 31st annual NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race after winning the Coors Light Pole Award at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday.

Hamlin turned in a qualifying time of 145.648 mph on the 1.5-mile track. The top five also includes Greg Biffle (144.643 mph), Brad Keselowski(144.349), Clint Bowyer (144.256) and Kasey Kahne (143.625).

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Danica Patrick qualified sixth, one spot ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr.

TV coverage of the race begins at 8:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1; the green flag is scheduled to drop at 9:16 p.m. ET.

After missing the first 11 races of the year due to a broken leg and foot suffered in an accident at Daytona in February, Kyle Busch is making his season debut at the All-Star Race.

Kyle Busch, who had the fastest practice lap at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday, qualified 19th out of 20 drivers.

The race includes four segments of 25 laps, and the average finishing position determines the order for the final 10-lap sprint to the finish.

The winner earns $1 million.

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JGR’s No. 20, No. 18 speed to top times

RELATED: Full qualifying results

Drew Herring did more than keep the seat hot for Erik Jones during qualifying at Iowa Speedway Saturday night.

Herring was fastest in Coors Light Qualifying for the NASCAR XFINITY Series 3M 250 on Sunday (2 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1). Jones will get into the seat Sunday, but will have to start at the rear of the field.

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Herring, in the No. 20 Toyota, turned a lap of 134.391 mph around the 0.875-mile oval track in the final round.

It was an all front row for Joe Gibbs Racing on Saturday night, as Daniel Suarez qualified second (134.351 mph) in the No. 18. Brian Scott (133.906), Chris Buescher (133.803) and Brandon Jones (133.752) qualified among the top five.

Defending series champion Chase Elliott will start sixth.

Ty Dillon, the series points leader (330) through nine races, qualified ninth.

Scott led the final practice at Iowa Speedway with a time of 133.747 mph.

Ryan Blaney, the 2014 pole winner for the May race at Iowa, will start 13th.

Ben Rhodes, who will make his XFNITY Series debut Sunday driving the No. 88 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, qualified 14th.

Follow the XFINITY Series 3M 250 on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET with TV coverage on FOX Sports 1.

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Jamie Dick to backup car after damage from lead coming off another car

FINAL PRACTICE RECAP | Full practice 2 results

Brian Scott led the final NASCAR XFINITY Series practice at Iowa Speedway for Sunday’s 3M 250 (2 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM) with a top speed of 133.747 mph during the 85-minute session.

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Brandon Jones, who topped the opening practice, was second at 133.435 mph, followed by Darrell Wallace Jr. (132.347 mph), John Wes Townley (132.314 mph) and Ben Rhodes (132.048 mph).

Rhodes is making his XFINITY Series debut this weekend in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. The 2014 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East champion will be missing his high school graduation in Louisville, Kentucky.

Defending series champion Chase Elliott was ninth in the final practice, while points leader Ty Dillon was 10th.

There was a caution just past the halfway point of final practice for smoke coming from Jamie Dick‘s backup car. Dick had a scary moment in the opening practice when lead came off of Ross Chastain‘s car and hit the No. 55 Chevrolet, causing significant damage to the car while a piece of metal also struck his helmet.

Coors Light Pole Qualifying is on tap for 5:45 p.m. ET.

FIRST PRACTICE RECAP | RELATED: Full practice 1 results

Brandon Jones topped the opening NASCAR XFINITY Series practice at Iowa Speedway.

The 18-year-old paced the field with a fast lap of 135.676 mph during the 55-minute session. This will be Jones’ first XFINITY Series start as he pilots the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Jamie Dick had to go to a backup car after lead came off Ross Chastain‘s car and hit the No. 55 Chevrolet, causing significant damage to the car while a piece of metal also struck his helmet. This will be Dick’s first start since being diagnosed with new on-set diabetes in March.

Chastain took to Twitter to apologize for what happened to Dick’s car.

Chris Buescher (135.606 mph) was second, while Daniel Suarez (135.211 mph), Ty Dillon (134.938 mph) and Chase Elliott (134.225 mph) completed the top five.

It was a quick turnaround for Elliott, who competed in Friday night’s Sprint Showdown at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Drew Herring shook down the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for Erik Jones, who will compete in Sunday’s race. Herring was 11th in the session.

The series’ stop at the 0.875-mile track marks the first standalone event of the schedule.

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18-year-old comes just .005 seconds short of catching Kahne

CONCORD, N.C. — For the second straight week, Erik Jones was left to lament what could have been in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

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Last week at Kansas Speedway, the difference was six laps when his Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 4 Toyota ran out of fuel. Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the difference was just five thousandths of a second, the margin of victory for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular Kasey Kahne‘s No. 00 Chevrolet in an overtime photo finish that had Jones’ crew guessing about the outcome halfway through the cool-down lap.

"I think we got him," came the word over Jones’ radio after the drop of the checkered flag. "They haven’t said yet so hang tight."

Seconds later came the confirmation: "Per the camera, double zero."

Jones gave no response. He parked on pit road and dismounted against the backdrop of Kahne’s burnout, making a hasty walk toward the truck series’ garage and the KBM trailer, finding refuge in between haulers. After gathering his thoughts only briefly, the 18-year-old rookie’s reaction was equal parts dismay and disbelief.

"It sucks when it has to come down to a green-white-checkered, and the fastest truck loses the race again two weeks in a row," said Jones, who led 88 of the race’s 139 laps. "It just sucks. We had such a good Dollar General Tundra. I just can’t believe we lost it. I don’t even know what to say, man. It really, really hurts. Really hurts." 

Jones’ reason for disappointment stemmed from the race being forced into overtime in the first place. Jones had just battled around the high side of Kahne to steer clear into the lead, with clean air and victory seemingly in sight with three laps left. But a late scrape for Daniel Hemric‘s No. 14 truck triggered the fateful caution period just before the white flag could be unfurled, forcing overtime and allowing Kahne to restart alongside Jones.

Jones chose the outside lane and the two stayed glued together in double-file formation for the duration of the two-lap shootout. But coming off Turn 4 for the final time, Kahne had just enough breathing room on the inside groove. Still, Jones wasn’t second-guessing his choice of the outside lane for the restart.

"We ran hard the whole lap," Jones said. "I was wide open the whole lap and we got a run on him off of four and he just unfortunately side-drafted us and beat us to the line. It’s hard to stop that. I just wish there was something I could have done different to stop it, but it was honestly luck of the draw and he got the better side draft coming to the line and was able to beat us to the line." 

Though he’s failed to scratch yet in the Camping World Truck Series win column this year, Jones remains on a hot streak. The KBM prodigy ranks second in the series standings, 16 points behind reigning champion Matt Crafton, and is fresh from an striking Sprint Cup Series debut at Kansas Speedway the previous week. He’ll try to make more headway in the NASCAR XFINITY Series’ visit to Iowa Speedway, site of Sunday’s 3M 250 (2 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM). 

Even though the bitter disappointment was evident in Jones’ post-race emotions, he’s impressed his share of peers in NASCAR’s top division.

"He just has a ton of raw, raw ability," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., co-owner of Kahne’s winning truck. "Really good at getting all the speed out of the vehicle he’s driving, so there’s no question, I guess, when you put Erik in a car, a truck or whatever that you’re getting everything you can. A lot of times, you sort of wait on or maybe have doubt about whether the driver’s getting everything he can out of the car’s setup, especially when you’re dealing with a young guy.

"Is he getting everything out of the equipment and how much is it him and how much is it the car? How much do we need to work on the car, how much do we need to wait on him to sort of work his way up to that type of ability, but Erik seems to be intense and every time he’s in the car, he’s giving everything he’s capable of giving and you don’t really have to question him at all, which I think makes it fun for the guys that work over there. They’ve got to be pretty excited to see him climbing in because he’s going to run hard and fast and he’s going to be around for a long time."