Erik Jones Ready to Deliver Another “Lights-Out Performance”

The last time that Dollar General’s yellow-and-black scheme adorned Erik Jones’ Tundra, the talented teenager captured  the pole at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway last November and led 114 of 126 laps en route to the victory in a race that was shortened due to a recurring power failure at the track. Jones hopes to duplicate that performance and deliver the nation’s largest small-box discount retailer another win Friday night when he climbs aboard his No. 4 Tundra for the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.

 

Friday’s race will mark Dollar General’s first of four-scheduled races onboard a KBM Tundra in 2015. The nation’s largest small-box discount retailer also sponsored four races last season, winning three of those events – twice with Kyle Busch (Kentucky Speedway and Chicagoland Speedway) behind the wheel in addition to Jones’ dominant victory at Phoenix. Overall in 32 races adorning KBM’s Tundras since 2010, the Tennessee-based company has been a part of nine wins – including the team’s historic first victory at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway in April of 2010 – and 18 top-five finishes.

 

Jones is coming off a dominant performance that ended in disappointment last Friday at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. The Michigan native broke the track record for the Truck Series with a lap of 30.101 seconds at 179.396 mph in qualifying to earn his third-career pole and proved to be just as fast once the race started. Jones led 151 of the first 161 laps and had a lead of over a second with 30 laps remaining, when he began to conserve fuel by getting out of the throttle at the start-finish line. Unfortunately, the No. 4 Tundra ran out of fuel with six laps remaining and had to coast down pit road.  After serving a pass-through penalty for speeding, the team was relegated to an 11th-place finish.

 

Although he hasn’t notched a tally in the win column, statistics show that Jones has been the most impressive driver in the Truck Series through the first four races of the season. The 18-year-old leads the circuit in several major statistical categories, including Driver Rating (122.4), Average Running Place (2.972), Average Start (3.5), Average Mid-Race Position (2.8), Green Flag Speed (2.250 Average Rank), Fastest Laps Run (136) and Miles Led (284.53).

 

Jones and the No. 4 Dollar General team now head to Charlotte Motor Speedway, where Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) has won four of the five races it has competed in since its debut season in 2010, ready to deliver another “lights-out performance” and cash in their first win of 2015.

KBM PR