NASCAR: 5 bold predictions for the final 5 races of the 2019 regular season
By Asher Fair
Erik Jones remains winless
Nobody in the NASCAR Cup Series is as hot as Erik Jones is right now. The driver of the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota leads all drivers with an average finish of 7.60 in the last five races, and that is the case despite the fact that he finished in a disappointing 23rd place in the race at Daytona International Speedway, a race he won last year to secure the first and only victory of his Cup Series career.
The 23-year-old Byron, Michigan native is set to enter this afternoon’s race at Watkins Glen International on a three-race streak of top three finishes after opening the season with three top three finishes in the first 18 races.
Only three drivers in the Cup Series have recorded more top three finishes than Jones has so far this season. Those three drivers are teammate Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., who share the Cup Series lead in victories with four each, and Team Penske’s Joey Logano, who leads the championship standings.
But Jones is still searching for his first victory of the season. While he appears to be on the verge of breaking through, don’t expect it to happen before the playoffs roll around.
A few weeks ago, Jones was on the outside looking in as it pertained to the playoff cut line, as he sat two positions below it. Now he sits four positions above the cut line in 13th place in the championship standings, and he is a solid 39 points clear of dropping out of the top 16.
A win for Jones would be nice. He hasn’t won a race in over a year, and as stated above, he has only won one race in 96 career starts, but with him being solidly above the playoff cut line, don’t expect the #20 team to try anything too risky to get their driver to victory lane.
He is in a great position to qualify for the playoffs based on his point total at this point. Even with a car capable of winning these last few races, he hasn’t quite been able to pull it off, so don’t expect any huge gambles to be taken by his team that would put any amount of points at risk if he doesn’t reach victory lane. As stated, a win would be nice, but such a gamble would not be worth it.