Erik Jones matched his best performance of the season Sunday with a third-place finish in the Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway.
Jones finished two spots behind his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch to score his fourth top five of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. Jones also finished third at Kansas Speedway last month and in the season-opening Daytona 500.
He thought he had a car capable of competing before the green flag flew and was pleased with being able to back-up that confidence with a solid run. Jones thought he might be able to make a run for the win in the closing laps.
“Well, yeah, you always want to think that way, but I think Kyle and I on four tires, if we were both on four tires would have been pretty even, but he had an advantage on tires there at the end,” Jones explained. “We needed some track position so we had to take two, and had it stayed green, we were going to run second, and we ended up third. You know, a good day overall.”
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Jones has been trending upward in recent weeks and carries a sense of optimism with him next week when the Michigan native returns home to compete at Michigan International Speedway.
“It would have really had to be a perfect scenario for us to win today, but we had a good car,” Jones said. “The DeWalt Camry was fast, and it was fast all weekend.
“We’ve been doing it every week, we’ve just got to have things go our way and have a little luck on our side. Had some good luck today and some things play out the way we needed them, so hopefully that trend keeps rolling here the next couple months.”
