Erik Jones gets historic Southern 500 win for Petty’s 43
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Erik Jones snapped a 109-race winless streak in Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway – and brought the 43 car to victory lane at Darlington for the first time in exactly 55 years.
Driving the Petty-GMS No. 43 car, Erik Jones also earned the No. 43’s 200th Cup race. The No. 43 last won at Darlington with Richard Petty in the 1967 Southern 500, his only Southern 500 win.
Jones took the lead with 23 laps to go – after Kyle Busch’s engine failed – and held off the No. 11 of Denny Hamlin for the historic win.
“We had a lot of good stuff go our way. We got the lead there with the 18 (Kyle Busch) losing a motor. And man, we’ve got a good shot if we can just get clear,” Jones said. “We had a good car, we just weren’t quite with the pace of some of those guys up front. And I knew – we took the lead, I’m like 20 laps, I can just run hard and those last two laps I was losing the balance a lot. I had been running really hard, but it was just enough. So just really proud.”
The No. 43 and the No. 11 are the only two numbers with 200 or more Cup wins. The No. 11 car has 228 wins.
Southern 500 Top 10 finishers: Erik Jones, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, Michael McDowell, Brad Keselowski, William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman
Jones now has two Southern 500 wins as his last win came in the 2019 Southern 500.
“I love this track; I love this race. On that trophy twice, man. I was pumped to be on it once, but to have it on there twice, pretty cool,” Jones said excitedly. “I’m so proud of everybody. Just what a dream come true. That’s all you can say.”
Jones’s win is also the first Cup win for the GMS team and the first Cup win for the Petty No. 43 car since Aric Almirola’s rain-shortened July 2014 Coke Zero 400 win at Daytona. He also earned the Petty No. 43’s first full-length win since John Andretti’s win at Martinsville in April 1999.
Erik Jones is also the first non-playoff driver to win the NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener since the playoffs began in 2004. Jones is one of 108 drivers with three or more Cup wins.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com