Erik Jones adds another major Super Late Model trophy to his mantel with Winchester 400 victory

WINCHESTER, Ind. -- the age of 16, Erik Jones turned some heads by out-dueling one of the best in the business at the 2012 Snowball Derby. Now driving for that same driver he beat, Kyle Busch, Jones added a Winchester rifle to his list of accomplishments less than a year later with a victory in the 42nd Annual Winchester 400 held Sunday for super late models.

“It’s hard to put in perspective,” Jones told SB Nation after the race. “I’ve run here five or six times and have been real close to victory. Finally cool to get a win here, and it’s really amazing to put my name on that list with all those really big names.”

Jones was up front on a few occasions throughout a clean and fast-paced race, which saw several green flag lead changes. He took the lead for good with less than fifty laps to go, but had to contend with fast qualifier Chase Elliott on several occasions.

“When I was racing the 61 (Johnny Van Doorn) there at the start I thought that he was going to be our biggest hindrance on the way to victory, but we were able to get away from him and my spotter said the 9 (Elliott) was coming pretty hard. He started running up on us, and I found something getting into one that I think was able to hold him off there,” added Jones.

For Chase Elliott it was an up and down day. It started off with setting the pace from the pole, had a setback when he cut a tire and set off a multi-car incident coming off turn two collecting 2012 Winchester 400 winner Ross Kenseth, and then got back in contention only to come up a position short.

“After we got in that wreck we just fought being really free so we took a rubber out of the right rear and I think that was just a little too tight to really run hard there at the end. Circumstances just weren’t good enough for us today,” explained Elliott about the closing laps.

Mason Mingus hung with the leaders all day and scored a third place finish with Augie Grill and Daniel Hemric rounding out the top five.

Grill and VanDoorn were the class of the field during much of the race, but faded near the end.

“We kind of had a slow stop there and came out eighth, and really weren’t too worried about it because the car came up through the field pretty easy every time after a pit stop. That was the loosest the car was all day was on the last set of tires,” explained a satisfied Grill who was proud of finishing all 400 laps.

For VanDoorn it was disappointment after a realistic shot at the $100,000 JEGS Triple Crown prize slipped away.

“We had a really good pit stop there at the end, and something just broke there with about thirty laps to go and that was it,” plainly stated VanDoorn.

From here most of the teams look forward to the All American 400 in three weeks at the Fairgrounds Speedway at Nashville, which also serves as the points finale for the Southern Super Series.

Raw footage of Erik Jones climbing out of his 42nd Annual Winchester 400 race-winning Kyle Busch Motorsports super late model at Winchester Speedway can be viewed below. The complete results of the race can be found below that.