RICHMOND, Va.: Erik Jones refuses to be eliminated from the first round of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and he made his mission well known in Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.
And then came post-race inspection.
After finishing fourth, Jones’s No. 20 Craftsman Toyota Camry ran into trouble during post-race inspection and was officially disqualified from the race. Instead of earning fourth place finishing points, eight-stage points or 42 points overall during the 400-lap race, Jones will now receive just a single-point and be credited with a last-place 38th place finish.
Suffering a mechanical failure which resulted in a 36th place finish in the Playoff opener last Sunday at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway, Jones had rebounded in a huge way with a fourth-place finish under the lights at Richmond.
Unfortunately, post-race technical inspection wiped out the team’s agenda after they failed post-race inspection in the Optical Scanning Station (OSS) and now find themselves in a likely must-win situation heading to next Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway ROVAL.
Before the disqualification, Jones had worked hard for what would have been his 10th top-five of the season Saturday night. After starting mid-pack, Jones was able march forward and in a big way to finish ninth.
Solid work on pit road by his No. 20 Craftsman Toyota elevated him to seventh for the start of Stage 2 and was able to push forward into the top-five by Lap 140.
At the end of Stage 2, Jones finished fourth setting the tone for the run to the finish. Restarting fifth for the start of Stage 3 and while teetering-tottering between fifth and seventh – but with 35 laps remaining, Jones began his march again towards the top-five again by taking fifth from Ryan Newman and overpowered pole sitter Brad Keselowski inside the final 20 laps of the event.
While teammate Martin Truex Jr. took the checkered flag, Jones finished fourth behind Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin and had erased a 23-point deficit towards the cutline, but now finds himself last amongst the top-16 Playoff drivers, 44 points in the arrears.
Jay Fabian, managing director of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series discussed the disqualification following the completion of inspection.
“Yeah, so the 20, standard procedure post-race in the playoffs, we run every car through the OSS and then we do a post-race inspection on first, second, and then generally a random,” said
Fabian. “The 20 car failed the OSS on the run through on the standard post-race inspection.”
Fabian added that a number of things could have resulted in the reason for the infraction.
“Any number of things,” he said. “There’s fairly critical measurements on the rear wheel alignment that have to be followed, so there’s any number of things that the team could do or not do to make it fail.
“Standard process as a race, we give a pretty strong allowance on what they can run pre-race to post-race, and it’s crept out of that range.
“Rear-wheel steer and alignment is important as a critical factor in downforce. It’s an aero benefit to get more skew in the rear, so we keep those parameters pretty tight so that everybody is racing with the same thing, and that’s the key to running all 16 cars through there.”
Had Jones been credited with his fourth-place finish, Saturday night’s race also marked the first time the Huntersville, N.C.-based team was able to occupy the first four positions of a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race. The team debuted at NASCAR’s pinnacle level in 1992.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
