Erik Jones wins Truck Series race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
The 19-year-old Jones beat Tagliani, a Canadian who specializes in road-course racing, to the first turn off a restart with two laps left on the 2.459-mile road course and easily held off two-time defending series champion Matt Crafton, who finished second.
"It's just a great day," said Jones, who took over the series points lead after winning the CWTS race at the track for the second year in a row. "It's awesome to get back into Victory Lane here again."
Jones said he felt he needed to hold off Tagliani on the final restart.
"I was thinking I needed to clear the 29 (truck of Tagliani). We raced hard and we were able to clear him," Jones said. "Unfortunately for him, he ran into a problem going down the hill, but I think we would have been able to hold him off anyway.
"It was an awesome day, an awesome race, we had an awesome truck from an awesome team."
Tagliani slipped to fifth after losing the gear. Prior to that mishap, he had repeatedly challenged Jones for the lead.
"It was good during the race," Tagliani said. "But as soon as I went to third gear on the back straightaway, it shredded."
Jones thus went on to his second series victory of the year and fifth in 32 career starts. He also won at Iowa in June and has two XFNITY Series victories this year.
The Kyle Busch Motorsports driver took a three-point lead over Crafton. Tyler Reddick, the leader entering the race, dropped to third -- 15 points back. Reddick finished two laps down in 19th after running into the back of Gray Gaulding's truck with 10 laps left, which resulted in the trucks of both drivers plowing into the tire barriers that lined the track.
Ben Kennedy was third in the race, followed by Daniel Hemric, Tagliani, Johnny Sauter, Cameron Hayley, Spencer Gallagher, John Hunter Nemechek and Cole Custer.
Crafton, the two-time defending series champion, is now second in the points standings, only three points behind Jones.
The Associated Press also contributed to this report.
