Erik Jones dominated a race as much as a driver can without winning in last Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Toyota Tundra 250 at Kansas Speedway.
The 18-year-old Michigan native led a track-record 151-of-167 laps and even gained an 11-second lead at one point before running out of fuel with seven go-arounds left on the 1.5-mile track.
“We had the fastest truck by far last week at Kansas, but unfortunately in the end it came down to fuel mileage and we weren’t able to get the win,” Jones said.
Jones finished 11th and remained third in the Camping World Truck Series standings, but fell to 18 points behind race-winner Matt Crafton for the series lead.
The NASCAR Next alum – who has recently drawn an abundance of praise for his April NASCAR XFINITY Series win at Texas and impressive Sprint Cup Series debut at Kansas last weekend – makes his next NCWTS start in Friday’s NC Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (8:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1).
Jones has never competed on the Queen City track, but turned laps on the 1.5-mile oval for Kyle Busch Motorsports at a rookie test earlier in the year.
“I was able to get a feel for the place and what is different about it compared to other intermediate tracks,” Jones said. “KBM has had a lot of success with Kyle at Charlotte, so hopefully we can carry some of that over this weekend and get another win.”
Source: NASCAR Wire Service
