Erik Jones and the No. 4 Special Olympics World Games Tundra team will be looking to end a recent string of bad luck as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads to Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Ill., for Saturday’s Drivin’ For Linemen 200.
Jones has had a fast Tundra all season long, especially over the last four races. Combined between races at Kansas Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Dover International Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway, the talented teenager has combined to lead 53% (357/673) of the total laps and has been the fastest truck on the track for 45% (245/545) of the green-flag laps.
Despite showing plenty of speed, a variety of misfortunes have kept the No. 4 team from victory lane thus far in 2015. The Kansas race was decided by fuel mileage and despite leading 151 of 167 laps, Jones finished 11th. At Charlotte, the caution came out just before Jones took the white flag while leading, and he ended up finishing second to Kasey Kahne by 0.005 seconds in a green-white-checkered finish. The team used a two-tire stop late in the Dover event to successfully improve track position, but the handling went away in the closing laps and he fell from first to third over the final seven laps. Last week at Texas, Jones had to come to the attention of his pit crew while leading the race to change the battery and after two subsequent trips to insert fresh batteries again, ended the race two laps down in the 15th position.
Now, the Michigan native heads to Gateway looking to redeem a win that was taken away from him in last year’s race at the Illinois track. Jones restarted second with just eight laps remaining and after battling side-by-side with Darrell Wallace Jr., for an entire lap, cleared his teammate and had his Toyota out front as the field went through Turns 1 and 2. Jones bobbled slightly coming out of Turn 2 and German Quiorga made hard contact with the left side of his truck and remained in the gas as the ToyotaCare Tundra was sent crashing hard into the inside retaining wall down the backstretch. The accident left the talented youngster with a disappointing 23rd-place finish
When it comes to getting rid of the bad luck that has plagued him in recent weeks, Jones is taking the advice of his favorite female vocalist, Taylor Swift, and is ready to Shake it Off at Gateway on Saturday.
KBM PR
