BRISTOL – The Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes resumed Sunday afternoon after a nearly four-hour rain delay without driver Denny Hamlin.
Hamlin complained of a neck spasm that occurred at the beginning of the race and erring on the side of caution, the Martinsville (Va.) Speedway race winner decided to sit out the remainder of the race, with recent NASCAR XFINITY Series race winner Erik Jones sent in to fill the void.
“I pulled something in my neck to upper back,” Hamlin said in an interview on Fox Sports 1. “I started going backward because the pain was bothering me quite a bit. I stretched it out, and we’d been working it the last few hours.
“I’m not 100 percent. With this format, it’s all about winning, and there’s no way I’d be able to compete for a win. It’s just doing my team a complete injustice to run a bunch of laps.”
Jones was at home in North Carolina preparing for a nap when a plane was sent there to bring him to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway to take the reins of the No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry.
The full-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver had to restart the race from the back of the pack, but under advisement from his Joe Gibbs Racing team, he exercised extreme patience, but the cautious approach cost him his lead lap status.
While no longer in contention for the win as the leaders put on a torrid pace, Jones’s goals for the rest of the race would shift to keeping the car out of trouble, but more importantly gaining crucial seat time in a Sprint Cup car.
The Byron, Michigan native did so for the most part, finishing a respectable 26th.
“Obviously, it was a huge learning experience overall,” said Jones. “The FedEx Camry was pretty good, but it just took me so long – really up until the red flag and kind of sitting and thinking about it and really figuring out what I had and what I had to do different from the XFINITY cars was just huge.
“I learned a ton. I wish we could start the night over and do it all again. It was an interesting situation for sure. I never turned a lap in one of these cars until the green flag dropped. It was interesting and I learned a ton. I can’t wait to try it again.”
Jones, the second-youngest winner in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series history had to combat the steering wheel during portions of Sunday’s race, but after the race, he said he made best of the situation.
“I didn’t get any time to get fitted in the car properly, but fortunately me and Denny (Hamlin) are pretty much the same size,” Jones added. “Overall, we didn’t have to change too much. The steering wheel was a little too close and just a different steering wheel than what I would normally run. That made it just tough to physically turn the wheel. It wasn’t a huge deal, actually 500 laps went by pretty fast.
“We thought at the red flag that I would be able to swap out and hopefully change the positioning of it, but unfortunately I didn’t get to because it was so short and I didn’t even get out of the car. Just kind of dealt with it and moved my hands around and figured it out.”
Coach Joe Gibbs said after the race he was impressed with what his young driver did, especially after battling less than ideal conditions for his first Sprint Cup race.
“When you see a young guy like that and he gets here five minutes before, we put him in the car, I said, hey, you’re not going to go unless you really feel good, you give me thumbs up,” said Gibbs.
“So when they got him all in there and got him set, because we didn’t have a chance to do anything, he went, I’m okay, and so we let him go. But to see somebody that young get thrown into that situation, he handled it very good, smooth, on the radio he was really good, and I think it was a real experience for him. But I thought he handled all of that exceptionally well.”
And while Gibbs remains mummed on when Jones might have the opportunity to make a full fledge attempt in the Sprint Cup Series, he hinted that Jones has a bright horizon ahead which is sure to include NASCAR’s top-level.
“You know, we know Erik I think has a very bright future. I think it’s going to be fun to work with him in the future.”
Jones said he didn’t know the next time he would be in a Sprint Cup car although heavy speculation in the garage keeps pointing to Kansas Speedway in three weeks.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Obviously this was far from planned, but if I do great and I would love the opportunity to get a full weekend of practice and really dial the car in for myself and be comfortable overall. I’d love to try it and I really think we could run top-15, top-10 and obviously a place like Bristol makes it tougher anyway. If I do, great, but I have a ton of races already in the Xfinity and trucks so we’ll have to see where it goes.”
Denny Hamlin lost three positions and slipped to 11th overall in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship standings, but more importantly remains locked into the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Hamlin said he expects to return for the Toyota Owners 400 from Richmond (Va.) International Raceway on April 25 for his hometown race.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
