NEWTON, Iowa — Story by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Daniel Shirey/NASCAR via Getty Images photo —
The wait is finally over.
Erik Jones, after a five-race string of near misses and bizarre mishaps that kept him from securing a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory in 2015, finally shook the monkey off his back and closed the deal, leading 112 of 200 laps to dominate the American Ethanol 200 at Iowa Speedway and score his elusive first Truck victory of the 2015 season.
Jones ran away from the field over the final green flag stint to score the victory, his fifth career NCWTS win, by 5.861 seconds over fellow young gun (and namesake) Brandon Jones in a dominant performance that never truly seemed in doubt.
However, Jones said in Victory Lane that the weight being lifted was a massive relief.
“It has been a long time coming and it sure feels good to get a win here at Iowa,” the 19-year-old admitted. “This is kind of where we turned our season around last year and got our Tundra into victory lane. What a day. Sat on the pole and won the race. Led a ton of laps. That’s how you do it.”
The young gun admitted that in the closing stages, he was wondering what was going to go wrong after so many near-misses.
“I was thinking every possible thing that could go wrong for about the last 20 laps and that is about the first time I think I’ve ever done that,” Jones said. “I’ve grown a lot as a person. It has been a long month and I’ve learned a lot, so I’m excited for the future.”
Jones started from the pole and led the first stint of the race despite an early slowdown, the first caution of the event coming out at lap seven for a spin by Spencer Gallagher and Cole Custer on the backstretch. He would maintain the advantage following the first restart of the night at lap 12, a restart that saw a five-wide evasive scramble on the frontstretch caused when Brad Keselowski Racing’s Tyler Reddick missed a shift.
The second yellow flag of the night flew at lap 25 for problems with the Ray Black Jr. machine, and was followed by a lap 41 crash for Jake Griffin and the MB Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado. On that round of pit stops, both Tyler Reddick (two tires) and Cole Custer (fuel only) used alternate pit strategy to beat Jones out of pit road, with Johnny Sauter leading the field back to green at lap 51 after four trucks stayed on the race track.
Sauter would lead first a ThorSport Racing one-two, and then a one-two-three when Crafton moved to third on lap 55, before teammate Cameron Hayley snuck by for the top spot three laps later. Crafton would take second from Sauter at lap 63, but it wouldn’t be until lap 95 when Crafton used the lapped truck of Norm Benning as a pick to get around Hayley and seize the lead for the first time all night.
From there, Crafton would put on a clinic, lapping all the way up to ninth place Spencer Gallagher before the caution returned at lap 121 — when Hayley spun in turns three and four and nearly took his teammate Sauter with him.
That caution period set up another round of pit stops and put Crafton (first) and Jones (second) on the front row for the restart at lap 128. Jones would get the advantage and take the lead by three truck-lengths on the early portion of the stint, before ballooning the gap to a second and a half before the fifth caution at lap 151 came out when Travis Kvapil socked the turn two wall.
A variety of tire strategies saw Brandon Jones assume the lead for the restart with 43 laps to go, but a caution flew the lap following after John Hunter Nemechek and Caleb Holman got together on the frontstretch — but not before Erik Jones had reassumed the lead.
That pass on the high lane would be the ticket to Jones’ bad luck stretch finally ending, as he sailed away from the field over the final 35-lap green flag stretch to notch his long-awaited first NCWTS win of the season and break the longest winless streak of his career — a whopping __ races.
For Brandon Jones, who finished second, the best finish of his Truck career was a statement run for both he and GMS Racing.
“We took two (tires) earlier in the year and it didn’t really work out for us that well, so I was a little nervous to be honest,” the Atlanta, Ga. driver admitted. “These guys worked really hard all weekend on this AGRA Chevrolet. This is the second time they’ve been on the truck and I’m happy to get them a second-place. We’re making a lot of gains for sure.”
Tyler Reddick came home third ahead of championship leader Matt Crafton, who saw his gap over Erik Jones slashed to 26 points and his lead over Reddick hold serve at 12 markers.
Open wheel midget and sprint car standout Christopher Bell finished fifth for Kyle Busch Motorsports after starting tenth, a solid performance for his series debut and one that “exceeded expectations” for the 20-year-0ld.
“My only expectation coming in here was just to make sure I finished the race,” Bell said. “I just didn’t want to go out there and do anything stupid and get crashed or get tore up. We came home in one piece, and I’m proud of that.”
Timothy Peters, Gallagher, Daniel Hemric, Custer and John Wes Townley completed the top 10 at the finish.
After running as high as third at one point in the event, Holman gave the Henderson Motorsports team a career night by finishing 14th, on the lead lap despite damage sustained in the crash with Nemechek earlier in the event.
So, now that he has the first win, does Erik Jones think more success is on the horizon?
Absolutely.
“It took is a while to get here, but now that we’re here I think we’ll keep reeling a few off,” Jones said confidently.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to action on July 9 for the UNOH 225 from Kentucky Speedway.
RESULTS: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series; American Ethanol 200; Iowa Speedway; June 19, 2015
- Erik Jones
- Brandon Jones
- Tyler Reddick
- Matt Crafton
- Christopher Bell
- Timothy Peters
- Spencer Gallagher
- Daniel Hemric
- Cole Custer
- John Wes Townley
- Justin Boston
- Austin Theriault
- Ben Kennedy
- Caleb Holman
- Ray Black Jr.
- Mason Mingus
- Johnny Sauter
- Timmy Hill
- Cameron Hayley
- Tyler Young
- Jennifer Jo Cobb
- Jordan Anderson
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Travis Kvapil
- Norm Benning
- Korbin Forrister
- Jake Griffin
- Tommy Regan
- Ryan Ellis
- Michael Affarano
- Justin Jennings
- Caleb Roark
