Erik Jones dominates the day to win XFINITY race at Texas
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Erik Jones dominated the day to win Saturday's My Bariatric Solutions 300 XFINITY Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Jones’ No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led the race-high total of 112 of 200 laps in all. He also won the first 45-lap stage of the three-stage race.
It was Jones’ first series win in his fourth start of this season, and his seventh career XFINITY win. He now drives full time in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and competes only part time in the XFINITY Series.
It also was the second XFINITY win at Texas for Jones in his young career.
"This is just an awesome day. It's cool to get back to Victory Lane," Jones said.
Ryan Blaney finished second, Kevin Harvick was third and Austin Dillon fourth as Monster Energy drivers swept the top four spots. Cole Custer finished fifth and was the highest-finishing XFINITY Series regular.
"It was important for our race team to get this good finish," Custer said.
The day was no without its share of excitement.
With 23 laps left in Stage 2, a multi-car crash was set in motion when the No. 42 Chevrolet of Tyler Reddick appeared to ever so slightly clip the left rear of Darrell Wallace Jr.’s No. 6 Ford.
That triggered a chain reaction that also collected the cars of Brennan Poole and Justin Allgaier, among others.
The ended Poole’s day, although the rest of the cars involved were able to continue in the race -- and Wallace, in particular, fought back with great success. He ended up finishing sixth, the second-highest finish of all the XFINITY regulars.
Throughout the first two stages, a number of other cars encountered difficulty getting around the newly repaved, reconfigured 1.5-mile track.
Daniel Suárez brushed the wall while leading on Lap 54, and then had his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota come around on him two laps later.
Daniel Hemric hit the wall early, and Garrett Smithley also went for a spin.
Suárez, Hemric and Smithley all were able to continue on in the race, however.
William Byron won the second 45-lap stage, but ended up finishing seventh in the race.
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Joe Gibbs Racing
