ERIK JONES, No. 20 GameStop Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What is it like to have other drivers identify you as one of the best young talents in racing?
“I think it’s definitely exciting and definitely a huge compliment to me and I think it’s – there’s a lot of things coming down the road and I think we’ve done a lot of things here in the past few years to put ourselves in a good position to try to make a run at it, so we’ll see as the years go by, but I think we’ve got a good opportunity in the XFINTIY Series this year to go out and win a championship. It’s been fun and it’s definitely cool to have guys like that making those remarks.”
Do you go to Kyle Busch for advice?
“Yeah, I do some. I have a really good relationship with Kyle Busch and everything he’s done for me in the Truck side of things and he’s been kind of the guy I always go to ask questions and what he went through when he was my age coming into the sport – we’re in kind of the same position he was at the same time and the same age. It’s interesting to kind of hear what he did and the things he would change and have done differently at the time, so he’s been probably my biggest resource throughout the last few years just to ask those kind of questions.”
How did you start racing?
“My mom got me into it. I’m a first generation driver and my mom was reading a magazine article on racing and thought it would be something that I would like to do and talked my dad into doing it. Me and my dad started racing and then my dad took it to another level – he extended it to the street stocks and late models and obviously pushed him to keep going with me. It was definitely a family sport, but it was funny that my mom got me started.”
Is it win or bust every week now with the Chase format?
“Yeah, in some ways. Here’s how we kind of see it or I kind of see it and my crew chief (Chris Gabehart) kind of sees it is that you have the driver’s championship and that’s decided by the Chase, but the owner’s championship is decided by points format, so I think that the true judge of teams honestly is going to be somewhat the owner’s points and for us every week I think we’re going to be – hopefully we can get the win knocked out of the way and get in the Chase and then honestly we’ll be racing for wins every week and watching that owner’s points and just kind of self-pride thing just to see where the owner’s points are stacking up. I think you need something to keep you motivated and I think that’s kind of what’s going to keep us motivated. Obviously, in the Cup Series it’s the Chase for the owner’s format as well, but in the XFINITY Series you now you have so many guys – the 18 car, the 22 car – obviously you’re going to be fast and there’s just no real viable way to do it, so it’s interesting.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 19 ARRIS Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How do you feel returning to Daytona?
“It’s a race track that for sure I’m really looking forward to. It’s a really superspeedway – one of the most important superspeedways – and I really think that I have to be good at it. I have a big challenge. Some people think Daytona as a superspeedway, it is a race track that you have to be in a good spot to be very lucky and I really was thinking during the off-season about how to be successful at this race track – how to be good at it. I just really think that last year, 2015 we were learning about so many race tracks and learning about everything, but in superspeedways I just feel like I was stuck a little bit, so I did a lot of homework to try to learn more about superspeedways, how to work on superspeedways, how to be a little bit better and I’m really looking forward to trying to be more successful on superspeedways than what I did last year.”
Did you feel unlucky last year in Speedweeks?
“Well, I think it’s experience. Maybe once those three wrecks it was a little lucky, but most of the time was on experience decisions I would like to say. I feel like right now, we are a different driver and a different race team. We know where we need to be. Our confidence level is different as well, so I really feel really good. I really feel like right now from one year to right now we have made a lot of ground, so really looking forward to trying to make something different on this superspeedway.”
Have you talked about making any Cup Series starts to advance your development?
“Yeah, we have had that conversation a little bit here, a little bit there, but at the end of the day, I’m one of those drivers that thinks if we do our job with what we are doing right now the future is going to take care of itself. Yeah, we’ve had a little bit of those conversations – nothing for sure really – but I really think the most important deal right now for us is the NASCAR XFINITY Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.”
How many Truck Series races will you run?
“Yeah, we’re going to pretty much the same amount of races – 13 races is what we’re going to do. I’m very excited about the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series as well because I just enjoy to race those races. I really do and besides that when we have two races like we’re going to have next week in Atlanta between the XFINITY Series and the Truck Series, I really think that it’s more helpful for me to be racing both series, so really looking forward to that. I have the opportunity again with Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch Motorsports and I was more than ready to take it.”
