Erik Jones and the No. 43 Black Entrepreneur Initiative Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE team finished in the 20th-place in the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) Ally 400 at the Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway on Sunday, June 20. This weekend, Richard Petty Motorsports, Black Entrepreneur Initiative, and Jones honored the 25th anniversary of those lost in the Khobar Towers Bombing (June 25, 1996) in coordination with the partnership with the United States Air Force (USAF).
Jones turned a lap of 29.835 seconds at 160.483 mph around the 1.333-mile concrete tri-oval in NASCAR Cup Series qualifying on Sunday, setting the ninth-fastest lap in qualifying for the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at the Nashville Superspeedway. NASCAR officials indicated that Jones had to drop to the rear of the field because of unapproved adjustments due to brushing the barrier in Turn 4 during qualifying.
Although Jones started in the rear of the 39-car field, at the end of Stage 1 on Lap 90 he was in the 15th-place. By the end of Stage 2 on Lap 185, Jones was scored in the 21st-place. The 25-year-old Byron, Michigan, native was scored as high as third-place at the Nashville Superspeedway.
“It was a tough day for the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Black Entrepreneur Initiative Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. We had an okay qualifying effort, ninth-place, in the top-10. We had to start in the back and we had fought our way back into the top-10 early in the race, and then lost the balance from there. Tough day – it was not the day we were looking for, for sure, but we stuck with it all day and got a top-20 finish.
“We will go to Pocono (Raceway) next week. It is a place I really like and we hope to have a couple good races.” -Erik Jones
