MIAMI – Just over a year ago at
Homestead-Miami Speedway, Erik Jones, at the age of 19, won the 2015 NASCAR
Camping World Truck Series title and became the youngest champion in series’
history. In Saturday’s season-ending Ford EcoBoost 300, the 20-year-old Jones
is seeking to add the NASCAR XFINTIY Series championship trophy to his display
case.
“It would be exciting to come
back and win the championship in a different series,” said Jones, who will make
the jump into the NASCAR Cup Series in 2017. “Two years back-to-back, two
different series, two different teams… that’s been a pretty neat thing.”
Even with last year’s
championship and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Rookie of the Year award
in his back pocket, Jones, who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, is careful not to
look too far ahead.
“In racing there are so many
things you can’t control,” Jones said. “You saw it last week in Phoenix with
the No. 9 truck of William Byron blowing a motor. There’s nothing really you
can do about it and (thinking about) it is only going to take away your chance
to win a championship. All the things you can’t control are definitely things
that weigh on your mind, but at the end of the day we’ve got to go out and run
our race, try to stay upfront and try to keep ourselves ahead.”
Jones, who made his first NASCAR
Camping World Truck Series start in 2013, finds himself battling Elliott
Sadler, Daniel Suarez and Justin Allgaier for this year’s NASCAR XFINITY Series
championship.
“I’ve learned a lot of things
through (the XFINITY) format this year that I wish I could go back and do
differently, and that I know I’ll do differently next year in the Cup Series,”
Jones said. “It’s definitely a very different format than I thought it would be
and there’s definitely a lot of different approaches I think you could take
other than what I did. I’m excited to hopefully try that out and see how it works
next year.”
With four wins in the 2016 XFINITY
Series season, Jones looks to take home the trophy as part of his bid to make
history.
“The long-term goal is to win all
three championships because no one has ever done that before, but obviously to
do that I’ll have to win this race this year,” Jones said. “I’m excited to get
an opportunity in the Cup Series at such a young age. There are not a lot of
guys in history that have had that chance, and I’m pretty proud to be one of them.”
NASCAR’s championship season
begins Friday with the Ford EcoBoost 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and
culminates with Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
championship finale.
