Erik Jones dominated Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, leading 112 of 200 laps in the No. 20 Game Stop/GAEMS Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing for his first series win of the season.
The victory in the My Bariatric Solutions 300 was Jones’ seventh career series victory and came two days shy of the two-year anniversary of his first series victory which also took place at the 1.5-mile Texas tri-oval. The Toyota driver has two victories and five top-five finishes in just five NASCAR XFINITY Series starts at Texas Motor Speedway. The Byron, Mich., native also made his NASCAR Truck Series debut at the speedway on June 6, 2014.
“I think we just had to look at what the track was doing over the race and kind of how the track changed what our car did,” said Jones. “The first time I came here, it’s funny, it really wasn’t that good to me, but after that it just kind of clicked and I felt really good here ever since. The repave was really treacherous to start the weekend and this is a nice way to bounce back for myself after going to a backup in the 5-hour ENERGY Camry. Hopefully, this is a good start for tomorrow.”
Jones will start 36th in Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 driving the No. 77 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry after missing qualifying when a crash in Friday’s practice forced the Furniture Row Racing team to go to a backup car. The NASCAR Cup Series rookie is currently 13th in the driver point standings after six races.
Coverage for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 will air live beginning at 1 p.m. ET (11 a.m. MT) on the Fox network.