Toyota Racing – Erik Jones
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
LAS VEGAS (February 21, 2020) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Erik Jones was made available to media at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:
ERIK JONES, No. 20 Irwin SPEEDBOR Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How did your Camry feel in practice?
“It was different. This year we got a new tire, a new construction and I thought we were overall generally a little freer and struggled with the bumps a little more than we did last year here. I have to work on that, get the bumps better and get the car secure, more tightened up a little bit. I think we’ll get to where we need to be from there. Need a little bit more speed in general. I think the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) found some there at the end, so maybe we’re going to go that way a little bit. Learned a lot. Thirty-five minutes is pretty short, but we did learn what we needed to.”
What has been different this year compared to last year?
“You come in with a different mentality. Last year, we just weren’t sure what to expect here and what our trim level needed to be, how much downforce we needed to build into the car and what we were going to fight through the race. Now we have a good notebook to look back on. We kind of know where our trim level needs to be at, especially for a cool weekend like it’s going to be here on Sunday. You learn on those notes and try to look back on them and improve on what you have. I feel like in the Fall race, we had a really good car here, which would be similar conditions, we just had a mechanical issue. Hopefully we can use some of that data and apply some to this weekend. I feel like it’s definitely a different mentality. You didn’t know last year what you’re really going to have and this year we have a good baseline.”
Do you have a favorite Ryan Newman moment?
“Watching him win the 500 when I was a kid was pretty cool. I remember that race pretty well, it was 2008. He was still with Penske then, so that was a cool race. I remember watching Kurt (Busch) pushing him to the win. That’s what kind of pops to my mind for Ryan (Newman). It’s been fun to get to know him. I’m glad he’s alright, obviously and hope to see him back here soon.”
Do you feel like Denny Hamlin has become a great restrictor plate racer?
“He’s a good superspeedway racer, obviously won two 500s in a row and is really good at Daytona. (Denny Hamlin) obviously knows what he needs to do, how he needs to position himself and how he needs to be there at the end of the race. He’s been able to stay out of trouble and just be in the right spot at the end. You don’t always get lucky, it’s just not always luck making it to the end of those races. There’s a little bit involved making it through the wrecks, but Denny has obviously done a better job than the others of making it to the end.”
What are your thoughts heading to Fontana next week?
I think it’s going to be different. Going into there last year, no one really knew what we needed car-wise, balance-wise and this year we have a whole notebook to look back on to try to get better. I think it’s going to be a different race than last year. I think there will be a lot more lifting, the cars will be faster. Everybody has just gotten their cars better and more efficient and faster on the straightaways and that makes for more lifting in the corners. It will probably be a little different race, but Fontana is always a good show. I really like going there. It’s cool you can pretty much run anywhere on the track. It will be exciting, but a little bit different from what we had.”
How will the new package you’re taking to Phoenix perform?
“Back to two years ago, that’s all the notes we have from it. I drove it a little bit in the simulator last week just trying to get a feel for where we’re going to be. You’re going to have a lot more degradation, a lot more falloff through the run than what we had last year. It’s just going to be a different race. I think it will be better – the racing will be improved quite a bit. Last year, we couldn’t even really get close to anybody and passing was a huge challenge – it wasn’t the most fun in the seat. Hopefully it makes it better and we’ll get closer to people to make more passes. You need to have it where you can get on the left rear cars and get them free so you can make a pass if you’re better than them and I think that’s what this package brings us back to.”
How did you digest everything that happened at the end of Daytona with Ryan Newman?
“It’s shocking at first when it all happens. You’re hoping for the best and then when you hear the news that he’s awake and alert and non-life-threatening injuries, that’s obviously a huge relief. You care about your competitors even though we race each other each week pretty hard. You don’t want anybody to get hurt. You just don’t see it much anymore. The cars are as safe as they’ve ever been by far and you don’t really see that. Huge relief to see he was okay. Walking out of the hospital two days later was pretty crazy. Happy he’s home and getting better so we can see him back at the track soon.”
Do you feel safer in the car after seeing what happened and how he walks away?
“I don’t know if it makes me feel more safe. You always know that risk is there for that freak accident. You can’t really have a worse impact than that, I don’t think than what he just went through. It is a testament to the cars, and everything works, and everything was in place to do what they did and kept him safe. I don’t know if it makes you feel more safe, it makes you feel the risk is always there. You tend to forget about it, especially as a driver. When you go years and don’t see anybody get hurt and don’t see those kinds of wrecks, you kind of push it to the side and forget that risk is even part of it. When that happens, it reminds you and puts you back in your head that what we’re doing is dangerous. Even as safe as we’ve got the cars, there’s still an opportunity for a freak accident.”
What’s the last race you were in that someone was injured?
“The last one would have been the Truck race at Vegas when Austin Theriault got hurt here (at Las Vegas). That was the last one I was in.”
How hard do you look at what Kyle Busch does to get a track figured out?
“Quite a bit. I’ve raced with him quite a bit. When I was racing Xfinity at Phoenix, he was still racing all the races. A lot of laps around there with him trying to beat him. I think we all look at what he does there, even beyond my teammates. That whole field tries to emulate what he does. It gives you a bar – a high bar to strive for. The last two or three years there, he’s been pretty strong. With a different package, it will be interesting to see what happens. I think he’s still going to be the guy to beat.”
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