Erik Jones continues JGR dominance in XFINITY race at Iowa
With Kyle Busch taking a break from the XFINITY Series Saturday night at Iowa Speedway, it was up to Erik Jones to continue carrying the Joe Gibbs Racing banner.
Jones had no problems carrying it all the way to Victory Lane, earning his third win of the season in the series. It was the fourth consecutive series victory for JGR, with Busch, a Sprint Cup regular who also happens to be the all-time leader in XFINITY Series wins, capturing the three previous races.
This time, with Busch many miles away preparing for Sunday's scheduled Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, Jones did an excellent imitation of his more seasoned JGR teammate.
"It's a great day. We had a great car, one that definitely deserved to win the race," Jones said. "The fastest car won tonight, which is always a good feeling."
The 20-year-old led a race-high 154 of 250 laps, including the last 15 after taking the lead for good from Ty Dillon, who finished second.
Jones lost the lead only on a couple of occasions on pit road over the first two-thirds of the race.
That included on Lap 158 when both Elliott Sadler and Ty Dillon beat Jones' No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota back on the track after a stop during one of many in series of mid-race cautions.
On the ensuing restart, Dillon, starting on the inside, fought off Sadler, who started as the leader in the preferred outside line but could not hold Dillon off.
Dillon then held the lead for the next 83 laps, with Jones sitting in second most of that time after also passing Sadler.
But with 15 laps to go, Jones worked his way around Dillon and led the rest of the way.
"Man, I want to win so bad. That was all I had," said Dillon, who is still looking for his first win of the season. "They're good right now. You have to give it all you have every single lap. ... I want to get in Victory Lane again and we're close. We've just got to get a little better.
"Every lap I had to do everything I could to keep him behind me. I had to watch him and try to get in his line. He ran a good race. I did all I could to keep him behind me, and it just wore my stuff out a little more than I needed to. ... He just had the better car there. I just wish I could have been a little bit more perfect tonight."
While it looked as if maybe Jones was saving his tires or conserving fuel to simply wait for the right moment to attack Dillon, Jones insisted after the race that it wasn't the case.
"No, I wasn't saving much. I was working as hard as I could to get around Ty, and it was tough," Jones said.
Rounding out the top five behind Jones and Dillon were Sadler, Brennan Poole and Dakoda Armstrong, who was driving the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota as a substiute for Matt Tifft, who continues to recover from brain surgery.
