Erik Jones’ team-best start hits a wall at the finish
AVONDALE, Ariz. — While Erik Jones earned the best start for Legacy Motor Club, his strong start hit a wall as he neared the finish Sunday.
Jones started fourth — the best start for LMC as an organization — and finished there in stage one after challenging Ty GIbbs for the lead at one point.
During the stage caution, Jones dropped to ninth. Once back there, he fell further and even raced Gibbs for 13th at one point in stage two.
“We got back to 13th and got stuck there. Then, we lost more spots, got flipped around on strategy,” Jones said.
On the restart after the strategies shuffled the running order, Jones hit the wall while they were racing three, four, five, even six-wide.
“Motherf-cker! What the f-ck, man?! It’s f-cking killed. Absolutely f-cking killed. Toe link isn’t broke but the upper control arm is killed,” Jones said over the radio afterward.
Jones’ incident as it happened (Credit: Dominic Aragon/TRE)
Jones cratered to 31st, seven laps down after a promising day.
After the race, he broke down what happened to put him there.
“14 was dragging down over and over on restarts. He slowed us down so much we got put four-wide. The 23 was trying to go in a hole that wasn’t there. I was just on top and got the bad end of it. It’s unfortunate,” Jones explained.
“You start racing with guys who are more desperate with track position and you get in a bad spot,” Jones said.
Jones is 18th in points, two points from the playoff cutline. Bristol is next and holds optimism for him and the Legacy Motor Club team.
“Our short track package has got speed so hopefully we got speed there too,” Jones said.
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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