FORT WORTH, Texas (November 6, 2015) – Rookie Erik Jones continued his march toward a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship with a dominating victory in Friday night’s WinStar World Casino & Resort 350 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Jones (No. 4 Toyota) led 117 laps of the 147-lap event as he cruised to a 2.855-second margin of victory over Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate Daniel Suarez (ARRIS Toyota) for his third win of the season and sixth of his career. It also was his first NCWTS win at Texas, which came in his third career start.
The victory allowed Jones to stretch his championship lead from 10 points to 17 over two-time defending NCWTS champion Matt Crafton (No. 88 Damp Rid/Menards Toyota) despite his strong outing. Crafton started on the pole and led 27 laps en route to a fourth-place finish, his seventh top-10 effort in the last nine races.
Jones, however, extended his run of consecutive top-10 finishes to 13 with the win, allowing him to inch closer to that series crown with races remaining next week in Phoenix and then the Nov. 20 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Jones, who won his first career XFINITY Series race at Texas in April, took the lead from Crafton on Lap 13 and did not encounter any major challenges throughout the evening. Crafton led again for a 15-lap stint from Laps 50-64 before Jones took complete command and led 82 of the final 83 laps.
Caution periods and possible gambles by other drivers never came about as the race established a track record for fewest cautions (1) and caution laps (8). The race also set a track record in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for fastest time of race at 1 hour, 23 minutes and 48 seconds. The previous mark was 1 hour, 25 minutes and 30 seconds from the fall race in 2012.
In addition to the 1-2 finish by Jones and Suarez, it was a banner night for Kyle Busch Motorsports as all three of its drivers finished in the top 10. Christopher Bell (No. 54 JBL Toyota) rounded out the strong performance for the organization with an eighth-place finish.
