ERIK JONES, No. 4 Special Olympics World Games Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
What is it about Texas that suits your driving style?
“I guess it was more my favorite track here in recent times – my first time here I wouldn’t say it was anywhere near my favorite. It wasn’t the best day, but after getting the XFINITY win here I felt quite a bit more confident in what we had there and also my abilities here. It just seems like a place you can move around so much and make things happen and make time. You can stay on the bottom and make good time, which kind of suits me. I’m a bottom-feeder by nature so it just kind of fits me as we’ve been running along.”
What are your thoughts on the points battle between yourself, Tyler Reddick and Matt Crafton?
“It’s been funny – I’m having to get back in Truck Series mode of points racing I guess again. I was so spread out between the Truck and the XFINITY Series that I just wasn’t focused on anything except going out and racing and winning for so long. I looked at the points for the first time the other day and kind of got an idea of where everything was and looked at where we are in the schedule and how many races were left. I wish it wasn’t as close as it was – you count the ones that got away, but you can’t look back on it like that, you just have to focus forward and do what we’ve been doing all year – keep bringing fast trucks to the track and figure out how to go out and start winning some races here.”
Does your approach change for Truck Series races versus the other series where it’s just about winning?
“Not at all really. I think every week I go to the race track with the intent to win and I don’t think there’s much of a change in our strategy based week by week and I take it with the sense that if we can win, that’s the best option for us. It shows at Dover, we took two tires there and that was just trying to get up front and win the race rather than just trying to maintain and taking four and seeing what we could do. I think we go to the race track the same way every week and try to win the race.”
Can you reflect on the year of experiences you’ve had since receiving your diploma at Texas?
“It doesn’t seem like that long ago that we were back here getting our diploma and all that. That was my first mile-and-a-half race in the Truck Series. Definitely now I’m a lot more confident on the mile-and-a-halves and honestly feel like the mile-and-a-halves are some of my best race tracks on the schedule now. That’s definitely a pretty comforting feeling and knowing what we want to do going into the weekend now on a mile-and-a-half. Back at that time, there were so many unknowns going into the weekend that I wouldn’t say that I was not confident, but I would say I was pretty heavily inexperienced at a mile-and-a-half and it definitely showed for most of the race. Definitely improved a lot on my part on taking these trucks and being able to race them to their full extent. At that time, the trucks were far superior to my abilities and now I feel like we’ve caught up – at least on my end I’ve caught up and I’m able to go and use the full extent of the trucks and continue to make them better now.”
Have you been doing any weight training with all the racing you’ve been doing?
“No, honestly no. I should and I’m trying to get into it more. I just think racing every week has been a pretty big benefit to me in being in better racing shape I guess you would say. I’m trying to eat the best I can and trying to keep myself in the best shape I can. I haven’t really felt worn out at all this year, I’ve been racing a ton and at Dover I felt like it was a pretty big test for me going 200 laps both days at Dover – it was pretty hot and I felt fine after, which was really good. I’ve been keeping myself hopefully in the best form I can be and just trying to go out and do all we can.”
