Erik Jones wins trucks race at Texas, extends lead with two races left

From ESPN.com

Erik Jones raced to his third NASCAR Camping World Truck
win of the year, extending his points lead over Matt Crafton
with two races to go. 

Sean Gardner/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Points leader Erik Jones raced to his third NASCAR Camping World Truck victory of the year Friday night with a dominating run at Texas Motor Speedway.

Jones, 19, led a 1-2 sweep for Kyle Busch Motorsports, beating Daniel Suarez by 2.855 seconds. Jones led 117 of the 147 laps on the 1.5-mile track en route to his seventh victory in 38 starts in three seasons in the series.

"Getting the win here, that's a nice boost for everybody, not just myself but everybody at KBM," Jones said. "We needed this to get back on track. We've struggled a little bit the last month, month and a half and worked hard to get back to this point. To go out there and win one the way we did, and lead as many laps as we did, that's a really nice statement for us."

Jones also will race Saturday in the Xfinity Series race, and sub for the suspended Matt Kenseth on Sunday in the Sprint Cup event. Jones won the Xfinity race at the track in April.

Ryan Blaney was third, followed by two-time defending series champion Matt Crafton, Tyler Reddick, Timothy Peters, Brandon Jones, Christopher Bell, Ben Kennedy and Cameron Hayley.

Erik Jones has a 17-point lead over Crafton with two races left.

"Hopefully, we can go to Phoenix and do the same kind of thing we've done the last two years," Erik Jones said. "It's nice to have that points lead back up closer to the 20 range than the 10 range, but we still have two more weeks, and we have to hold onto it, be strong and close this deal out."

Jones broke the track truck record for a 147-lap race with an average speed of 158.002 mph. The event had only one caution -- also a track record -- for five laps.