Erik Jones Continues Impressive Top-Five Streak at Watkins Glen

WATKINS GLEN, NEW YORK – AUGUST 03: Erik Jones, driver of the #20 DeWalt Toyota, stands in the garage during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on August 03, 2019 in Watkins Glen, New York. Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images

After finishing third twice and second once in his last three Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts, Erik Jones kept the top-five streak alive with a fourth-place run in Sunday’s GoBowling at The Glen.

Jones started 14th in the event after sliding in turn one and blowing a tire on his first qualifying lap on Saturday. By the time the race restarted for the final stage on lap 44, Jones was running eighth, and he worked his way forward from there.

After the strong run, Jones remained 13th in the series standings, but his lead over the 16th-place tie between Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman grew to a relatively secure 54 points.

“It’s good to keep it all going,” Jones said. “Watkins Glen is kind of the wild card in there. Being a road course and everything, we’ve been on some tracks that have been really good to us, and Watkins Glen has been good to us, but you still never know what can happen on strategy. It worked out the best it really could.

“I made a mistake yesterday (in qualifying). We started too far back, and just took us all day to get the DeWalt Camry upfront. I felt like we had a fifth-place car all through practice, and we were able to get a little better finish than that.

“It’s nice to keep that streak going and now going to two places—Michigan next week and then Bristol—where I think we can win. We have some really good momentum behind us these months. You can’t keep running up in the top-five every week and not win a race. That’s what I keep telling myself and hopefully, we can do it here soon.”