Erik Jones at 8:40 pm ET on Monday, June 15, 2015 Photo – Jared Wickerham/Getty Images
Erik Jones is our guest on Fan4Racing Fan2Fan NASCAR & Race Talk on Monday, June 15, 2015 at 8:40 pm ET. Call 714-202-9918 or tweet @Fan4RacingSite @Sal_Sigala or @ZRoethlisberger with any questions or comments during the LIVE broadcast.
After starting from the pole for Saturday night’s Drivin’ for Linemen 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Gateway Motorsports Park, Erik Jones led a race-high 84 laps, but once again experienced misfortunes late in the race, spoiling his effort to collect that elusive first win of the season. Jones was in the runner-up position, chasing down race-leader Matt Crafton, with just under 20 laps remaining when contact with a lap truck resulted in terminal damage to his Special Olympics World Games Tundra and relegated him to a 23rd-place finish.
The Michigan native was leading the race when a stalled truck in turn two brought out the fourth caution of the race with 42 laps remaining. Reporting a tight-handling Tundra for most of the race, Jones brought his truck down pit road. Crew chief Rudy Fugle ordered four-tires, fuel and made an air pressure adjustment trying to loosen the handling for his driver in the closing stages. The pit stop was slow, due to a tire getting stuck on the fender, with other teams electing to make a two-tire stops, putting the No. 4 team in third when the race restarted on lap 123.
Jones fell back to fourth on the restart, but within five laps had raced his way to runner-up behind race leader Matt Crafton. He found himself half a second behind Crafton with 25 laps remaining, and slowly began to reel him in as the laps wound down. He closed the gap to a third of a second on lap 143 as they both approached lap traffic. Jones dove to the bottom of a lap truck coming off turn four, but when the lap truck didn’t leave him enough room, he got loose underneath him and the two made contact.
With his truck spinning down the frontstretch, Jones came to rest against the inside retaining wall just shy of the start-finish line. Although he was able to get his truck going momentarily, the contact had caused damage to the battery box, stalling his truck in turn one, before he could make it down pit road. A push truck escorted Jones to his pit stall, but the damage to the battery box was too severe to fix with just over ten laps remaining and the No. 4 team was unable to finish a race for the first time this season.
Cole Custer picked up the second NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win of his career. Spencer Gallagher finished in second-place. Johnny Sauter crossed the finish line in the third, while John Hunter Nemechek and Cameron Hayley rounded out the top-five finishers. Jones’ Kyle Busch Motorsports teammates Matt Tifft and Justin Boston were both involved in accidents and finished 25th and 27th, respectively.
The eighth race of the 2015 season featured six cautions for a total of 35 laps. There were nine lead changes among five drivers, including Jones who led three times for 84 laps.
With eight of 23 races completed, Jones fell one position in the championship standings and now sits fourth, 33 points behind series points leader Matt Crafton.
Jones will be back behind the wheel of the No. 4 Special Olympics World Games Tundra when the Camping World Truck Series returns to action on June 19 at Iowa Speedway in Newton. The talented youngster is the defending winner at Iowa where he picked up his first win of 2014 at the .875-mile oval last July.
Live coverage of the American Ethanol 200 begins with the Camping World Truck Series pre-race show at 8 pm ET on Fox Sports 1.