{"id":8556,"date":"2017-04-22T20:00:02","date_gmt":"2017-04-23T01:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=8556"},"modified":"2017-04-24T20:26:21","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T01:26:21","slug":"erik-jones-rallies-from-penalty-to-win-nascar-xfinity-race-at-bristol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2017\/04\/22\/erik-jones-rallies-from-penalty-to-win-nascar-xfinity-race-at-bristol\/","title":{"rendered":"Erik Jones rallies from penalty to win NASCAR XFINITY race at Bristol"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2013 Erik Jones<\/strong> found the ideal way to atone from a mistake in Saturday\u2019s Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway<\/a>, but it took a bump-and-run for Jones to complete his comeback at the .533-mile short track.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Erik Jones, driver of the #20 Reser’s American Classic Toyota, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 22, 2017 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Matt Sullivan\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Recovering from a Lap 230 pit road speeding penalty that sent him to the back of the field, Jones worked his way to the front through a series of quick cautions and muscled Ryan Blaney out of the way to take the lead on Lap 280 of 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jones held the top spot the rest of the way, through a caution that slowed the race after William Byron, Justin Allgaier, Brennan Poole and Austin Dillon were involved in a Turn 4 wreck on Lap 291. The race restarted on Lap 298, but Blaney couldn\u2019t get to Jones\u2019 bumper to return the favor before the checkered flag waved.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“It was just hard racing,” said Jones, who won his second straight NASCAR XFINITY Series race of the season, his second at Bristol and the eighth of his career. “We ended up racing hard and getting by him. To come back from a pit road penalty like that, it\u2019s a race I won\u2019t forget for a long time \u2013 just an awesome day.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Erik Jones, driver of the #20 Reser’s American Classic Toyota, crosses the finish line to win the NASCAR XFINITY Series Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 22, 2017 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Blaney led the field to a restart on Lap 278, but Jones had superior speed on the short runs and quickly pulled up to Blaney\u2019s bumper. As they raced hard into Turn 1, Jones applied the bumper of his No. 20 Toyota, sent Blaney\u2019s No. 22 Ford up the track and made the decisive pass.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“He was so much better than us on the short runs,” Blaney said. “He wasn\u2019t going to back out, and I wasn\u2019t going to back out either\u2026 I knew I pushed the issue with him. I knew he was close, and I don\u2019t blame him for not backing out at that time.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“You can\u2019t do that, so I took a chance, and we had some contact. Fortunately, we were able to get a restart in fourth (on Lap 298) and get to second and just couldn\u2019t quite get close to make a run at him.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Erik Jones, driver of the #20 Reser’s American Classic Toyota, celebrates after winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 22, 2017 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

To Jones, the bump was justified by late-race urgency and the relative speed of his car.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“At that point in the race I think there was less than 20 (laps) to go, and you have to do all you can to try to get to the lead,” he said. “I knew clean air was important, and we were quite a bit faster than the 22 just to fire off, and I guess just the track cooled down and we got some speed back in the car.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“We were able to get around him and get the lead, and from there, I think everyone was stuck on the bottom, and we were able to hold them off.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It was a race of radically changing fortunes, and not just for Jones. Polesitter Kyle Larson led 180 laps, but cut a tire after contact with Brandon Jones\u2019 Chevrolet on lap 261 \u2013 an incident that started a chain-reaction wreck that eliminated Cole Custer, Darrell Wallace Jr. and Garrett Smithley.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Erik Jones, driver of the #20 Reser’s American Classic Toyota, affixes the winner\u0092s decal to his car in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 22, 2017 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Matt Sullivan\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Larson compounded his issues with a penalty for a commitment line violation but came from the rear of the field in the final 30 laps to finish seventh.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sunoco rookie Daniel Hemric came from a lap down to win the $100,000 Dash 4 cash bonus after the three other qualifiers for the XFINITY-sponsored prize \u2013 Custer, Allgaier and Brendan Gaughan \u2013 all were involved in accidents.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hemric finished fifth behind Daniel Suarez in third and series leader Elliott Sadler in fourth.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Notes: Blaney finished second in the No. 22 Team Penske Mustang for the third time this season. All told, the 22 car has five runner-up results without a win this year\u2026 The action-filled race featured nine cautions for 85 laps.<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

NASCAR XFINITY Series Race – Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Bristol Motor Speedway<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Bristol, Tennessee<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Saturday, April 22, 2017<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

    1. (4) Erik Jones(i), Toyota, 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    2. (9) Ryan Blaney(i), Ford, 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    3. (10) Daniel Suarez(i), Toyota, 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    4. (17) Elliott Sadler, Chevrolet, 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    5. (8) Daniel Hemric #, Chevrolet, 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    6. (6) Ty Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    7. (1) Kyle Larson(i), Chevrolet, 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    8. (13) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    9. (16) Blake Koch, Chevrolet, 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    10. (28) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    11. (30) JJ Yeley, Toyota, 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    12. (19) William Byron #, Chevrolet, 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    13. (2) Austin Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    14. (5) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    15. (21) Quin Houff, Chevrolet, 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    16. (7) Matt Tifft #, Toyota, 300.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    17. (15) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 299.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    18. (23) Spencer Gallagher #, Chevrolet, 298.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    19. (31) Dakoda Armstrong, Toyota, 298.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    20. (18) Brandon Jones, Chevrolet, 297.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    21. (20) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 295.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    22. (32) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 295.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    23. (29) Harrison Rhodes, Chevrolet, 294.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    24. (34) Timmy Hill, Dodge, 294.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    25. (37) Jeff Green, Chevrolet, 294.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    26. (22) Jeb Burton, Toyota, 293.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    27. (36) Carl Long, Dodge, 293.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    28. (38) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 292.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    29. (26) BJ McLeod, Chevrolet, 292.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    30. (40) Mike Harmon, Dodge, 281.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    31. (11) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, Accident, 268.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    32. (3) Cole Custer #, Ford, Accident, 262.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    33. (14) Darrell Wallace Jr., Ford, Accident, 258.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    34. (35) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, Accident, 253.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    35. (12) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, Accident, 243.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    36. (27) David Starr, Chevrolet, Accident, 227.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2013 Erik Jones found the ideal way to atone from a mistake in Saturday\u2019s Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway, but it took a bump-and-run for Jones to complete his comeback at the .533-mile short track. Recovering from a Lap 230 pit road speeding penalty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8503,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[177,180,16,181],"class_list":["post-8556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-bristol-motor-speedway","tag-erik-jones","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-xfinity-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/NXS_BMS_VLCelebration_042217-e1492964539357.jpg?fit=625%2C467&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-2e0","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8556"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8560,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8556\/revisions\/8560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}