News: Erik Jones – No. 20 DEWALT Toyota Camry Preview (MENCS) – Atlanta Motor Speedway
No. 20 DEWALT Toyota Camry News and Notes:
Jones Career NASCAR Cup Series Stats at Atlanta Motor Speedway:
Jones 2019 Season NASCAR Cup Series Stats:
Jones Career NASCAR Cup Series Stats:
From the Driver’s Seat:
Erik Jones: “I’m excited for Atlanta. It’s a challenging track, but it should be pretty different with the new rules package going in. We don’t really know 100 percent what to expect, but we’ll have to adjust and adapt as the day and as the weekend goes. I’m happy to have some good momentum going from Daytona. It’s the best way we’ve started our Cup season to this point in my career, so just got to keep that rolling and keep working to get better and better each week and hopefully we can go out and have a shot at our first win for the season this weekend at Atlanta in our DEWALT Camry.”
From the Pit Box:
Chris Gayle: “I’m very excited to get the season rolling at our first race track with the 2019 aero rules. I think we’ve all spent time thinking and planning for how these news rules will influence the practice, qualifying and racing compared to what we were used to with the 2018 rules. Atlanta is a track with a very old surface that’s really hard on tires, and I think that could really make this event much different than some of the future races at tracks that are a little less aggressive on tires. We finished just outside the top 10 last season in 11th at this event, so we look forward to continued improvement at this event and hopefully a shot to improve our top-three finish from Daytona last week.”
- JONES AT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY: Erik Jones will make his third-career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend. In his previous two starts at the track, Jones has a best finish of 11th in last season’s Folds of Honor Quick Trip 500. Fresh off their third-place finish in the Daytona 500, Jones and the No. 20 DEWALT Toyota Camry team look to break in to the top 10 for Jones’ first top-10 finish at the 1.5-mile track. With starts in both the NASCAR Xfinity and Gander Outdoor Truck Series, Jones has a best finish of third in the 2016 Xfinity race and seventh in the 2015 Truck Series race.
- JGR AT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY: Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) has 103 total starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Cup Series competition. In those starts, the team has earned 11 wins, 33 top-five finishes, 46 top-10 finishes and four pole starting positions. The team has led 2,597 laps, completed 32,150 of 33,381 attempted laps (96.3%) and earned an average start of 15.9 and an average finish of 15.1. Bobby Labonte leads the team with six wins followed by Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch with two wins each and Denny Hamlin with one win.
- DAYTONA 500 RECAP: Competing in his third Daytona 500, Jones started the race from the 28th position and after surviving several late-race cautions, a hiccup with fuel pressure and receiving the “Lucky Dog” on two occasions, crossed the finish line in the third position. Teammate Denny Hamlin won his second Daytona 500 followed by Kyle Busch and Jones to round out a 1-2-3 finish for Joe Gibbs Racing.
- THIS WEEK ON THE NO. 20 CAMRY: For the first time this season, the familiar yellow and black colors of DEWALT will adorn the sides of the No. 20 Toyota Camry with Jones.
- RACE INFO: The Folds of Honor Quick Trip 500 is scheduled for Sunday, February 24, 2018. Coverage will begin at 2:00 p.m. ET on FOX, Sirius XM Channel 90 and PRN Radio.
Jones Career NASCAR Cup Series Stats at Atlanta Motor Speedway:
| Starts | Wins | Top 5 | Top 10 | Poles | Laps Led | Avg. Start | Avg. Finish |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16.5 | 12.5 |
Jones 2019 Season NASCAR Cup Series Stats:
| Starts | Wins | Top 5 | Top 10 | Poles | Laps Led | Avg. Start | Avg. Finish |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 28.0 | 3.0 |
Jones Career NASCAR Cup Series Stats:
| Starts | Wins | Top 5 | Top 10 | Poles | Laps Led | Avg. Start | Avg. Finish |
| 76 | 1 | 15 | 33 | 2 | 410 | 12.6 | 15.7 |
From the Driver’s Seat:
Erik Jones: “I’m excited for Atlanta. It’s a challenging track, but it should be pretty different with the new rules package going in. We don’t really know 100 percent what to expect, but we’ll have to adjust and adapt as the day and as the weekend goes. I’m happy to have some good momentum going from Daytona. It’s the best way we’ve started our Cup season to this point in my career, so just got to keep that rolling and keep working to get better and better each week and hopefully we can go out and have a shot at our first win for the season this weekend at Atlanta in our DEWALT Camry.”
From the Pit Box:
Chris Gayle: “I’m very excited to get the season rolling at our first race track with the 2019 aero rules. I think we’ve all spent time thinking and planning for how these news rules will influence the practice, qualifying and racing compared to what we were used to with the 2018 rules. Atlanta is a track with a very old surface that’s really hard on tires, and I think that could really make this event much different than some of the future races at tracks that are a little less aggressive on tires. We finished just outside the top 10 last season in 11th at this event, so we look forward to continued improvement at this event and hopefully a shot to improve our top-three finish from Daytona last week.”
