From Jayski.
The tale of two Joneses continues.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Erik Jones and Richard Childress Racing’s Brandon Jones are the two front runners in this season’s Sunoco Rookie of the Year campaign. Erik Jones currently leads Brandon Jones by 27 points in the rookie standings.
Erik Jones’s season has had its ebbs and flows. Richmond wasn’t kind to Erik Jones last weekend, as he was caught in two separate accidents during the race, relegating him to a 34th-place finish - his worst of the season. Jones has posted one win and five top fives this year.
This weekend, the young the JGR driver will have his work cut out for him. He has only made four series starts on restrictor-plate tracks (three at Daytona and one at Talladega), posting one top-10 finish (Daytona - July, 2015). His lone Talladega start resulted in a 30th-place finish due to overheating.
“Talladega is definitely a place where you have to have everything go right, not only from a team perspective, but also from the perspective of being in the right spot at the right time of the race, and making sure you are up front and challenging for the win all day and trying to miss the wrecks and stay out of everything,” Erik Jones said. “If that happens, then usually you can be up at the front with a chance to win.”
On the other hand, Richard Childress Racing’s Brandon Jones has seen a season of solid consistency with not one finish outside the top 15. In eight starts in 2016, he has posted four top 10s and an average finish of 9.9.
This weekend will be Brandon Jones’ series debut at Talladega, but if his performance earlier this season at Daytona (seventh-place finish) was any indication of how he will do, expect a solid performance.
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