Erik Jones falls short of first Cup Series win, records career-best finish

Erik Jones didn’t want to sound like he was complaining after a career-best second-place finish Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, yet as much as he wanted to be happy with the result he also couldn’t help lamenting what might have been.

Jones started on the pole and led a race-high 260 laps, but Kyle Busch was able to pass Jones for the lead with 56 laps remaining when the 21-year-old rookie bobbled as he maneuvered through slower traffic. Busch led the rest of the way to complete a sweep of the Monster Energy Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series races over the past week at Bristol.

“You don’t want to sound like you’re whining or being a sore loser by saying it sucks to run second, but it’s a bummer. It hurts,” Jones said. “This was the first shot that I really had to come really close to it in the Cup Series. It’s Kyle Busch. He won all three races here this weekend.”

Jones and Busch swapped the lead frequently throughout the evening, 10 times in total and three times over the final 140 laps. At one point, Busch even radioed to his team that Jones was simply better.

Busch is credited with “discovering” Jones after he lost to the then- teenager in a 2012 Super Late Model Race. Busch encouraged Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing to sign Jones, who then quickly ascended up through NASCAR’s developmental ladder.

“He’s a phenomenal talent and a great racecar driver. We knew that a long time ago,” Busch said. “I don’t know whether it’s a good thing I found him or a bad thing I found him, because one of these days I’m going to lose to him and I’m not going to be thrilled, but I’m still going to congratulate him.

“I thought today was actually going to be that day.”

Although Jones had difficulty accepting the defeat, he tried to find some positivity in the outcome. He acknowledged it was his best chance to win a Cup race in 27 starts, and he learned things that would make him better next time he found himself in a similar situation.

”Hopefully that gives myself a lesson and everyone a lesson of what it really takes to win these races. Obviously, they’re not easy to win. Especially this Bristol race; 500 laps is pretty tough.

“There’s a lot of positives we can take out tonight; the only negative is we ran second.”

The finish follows Jones placing third last week at Michigan International Speedway. He’s now finished in the top 10 in four consecutive races and six of the past eight.

Despite the improved consistency over the second-half of his first year, Jones will need to win one of the two remaining regular season races to earn a playoff berth. He trails Jamie McMurray by 126 points for the final provisional transfer position, a sizeable deficit that cannot be erased.

But were Jones to win Sept. 3 at Darlington Raceway or Sept. 9 at Richmond Raceway, he’d lock himself into the 16-driver playoffs regardless of the points gap. And it’s knowing that he needs a win to make the postseason that made what transpired Saturday night tough to stomach.

“Bristol’s a really good racetrack for myself and felt like we had a really good shot all night, led a ton of laps,” Jones said. “So, yeah, it hurts when you’re that close and feel like you have that good of a car.”