Joe Gibbs Racing driver Erik Jones was made available to the media at Dover International Speedway:
ERIK JONES, No. 28 GameStop Ride of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What is your mindset going into the race at Dover International Speedway after a disappointing finish last weekend?
“Yeah, I mean, it’s been fun so far. Obviously, only one race in not the finish we wanted but had a really fast car and had one that could’ve won the race, but ended up being our own biggest enemy in that one. Hopefully can get it back on track here at Dover — another really good race track for us. One where we did get a win here earlier this year so I think it’s a track where we can hopefully repeat and grab another win, but in all honesty I think we’re only three points out of the cutoff right now. So, as long as we run top-10 here in the next two weeks we’ll be just fine. It’s not always as easy as it sounds so we need to go out, do our job and execute correctly.”
How do you balance going for wins and points in this Chase format?
“Well, it’s a fine line. You’ve got to control what you can control and at Kentucky I didn’t do a very good job of that and what I can control and put myself in a situation to make a mistake and ended up doing that and taking ourselves out. So, that’s not something we want to do this weekend and obviously if we can avoid that we need to. If we’re caught up in something and it’s something out of our control that’s nothing we can do about that. We still need to put ourselves in a good position and one where we’re running upfront and hopefully in the mix for a win and if we can do that I think we’ll be just fine.”
Did anything from last week’s race surprise you now that you are in the Chase?
“Nah, I wouldn’t say anything was too surprising. I think we were exceptionally fast last weekend and didn’t really capitalize on it. Nobody really stood out. I guess the only thing that surprised me was that Elliott (Sadler) ended up winning that race. He said himself he wasn’t very good that weekend and then they ended up in position to win so that was neat for them. I think the contenders were the same that you’ve seen over the last month or so. We were fast, Daniel (Suarez) was fast, the JR Motorsports cars were pretty good all night. And, I think we’ll be the same kind of field all the way until the end of the year depending on who makes it through the rounds and how the races play out. Nothing really stood out as being too surprising to me at Kentucky.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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