NASCAR: Erik Jones’s post-Darlington win stretch has been a disaster

By Asher Fair | Oct 17, 2019

DOVER, DELAWARE - OCTOBER 04: Erik Jones, driver of the #20 DeWalt Toyota (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images) /

Ever since he won at Darlington Raceway in the penultimate race of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series regular season, Erik Jones has been on a disastrous stretch.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Erik Jones found himself in a position where it appeared as though he may struggle to qualify for the four-round, 10-race 2019 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs on points toward the middle of the season, as he sat in 18th place in the championship standings following the 18th of 26 races on the regular season schedule.

At this point, there was even speculation that he would be replaced by Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity Series superstar Christopher Bell behind the wheel of the #20 Toyota in the 2020 season.

The 23-year-old Byron, Michigan native then went on a four-race streak of top four finishes during which his average finish was 3.00, and he launched himself to 13th place in the championship standings to roughly one full race’s worth of points ahead of the playoff cut line with only four races remaining in the regular season.

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Three races later, Jones even eliminated himself from the points discussion as it pertained to qualifying for the playoffs, as he secured the second victory of his career at Darlington Raceway to officially lock up a berth in the playoffs. After he won this race, he was confirmed as the driver of the #20 Toyota for the third consecutive season next year.

But ever since he visited victory lane following this 367-lap race around the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) Darlington Raceway oval in Darlington, South Carolina, he has been on a disastrous stint.

Jones’s average finish over the course of the six races that have been contested since he won this race is 33.67, by far the worst among the 33 drivers who have competed in each of these six races. In fact, the next worst average finish in these six races, which belongs to Landon Cassill of backmarker team StarCom Racing, is more than six positions better than Jones’s at 27.50.

Jones, who found himself quickly eliminated from the playoffs with an average finish of 38.00 in the three-race round of 16 and no finishes of better than 36th place during this round, has recorded five finishes of 34th or worse during this six-race span.

His 15th place finish at Dover International Speedway is his best result during this span, and that came with him finishing two laps off the lead lap even though he finished in a solid sixth place at the track back in May.

Of course, Jones did finish in fourth place in the round of 16 playoff race at Richmond Raceway, but that ended up being changed to a 38th (last) place finish after his #20 Toyota failed post-race inspection and he was disqualified.

His six-race stint since winning has included three crashes, one disqualification and one poor result as a result of a mechanical issue. Certainly not all of these issues have been his fault. But in the first 25 races of the season, he was forced to retire from only one race, that race being the May race at Charlotte Motor Speedway when he crashed early when one of his tires went down.

He simply hasn’t gotten anything right since taking the checkered flag for the second time in his career and securing his ride for next year.

In fact, based on points alone and excluding playoff resets, his point total only ranks 18th among all drivers, in large part thanks to this disastrous stretch of six races. It even trails that of non-playoff drivers Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports and Daniel Suarez of Stewart-Haas Racing.

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Fortunately for Erik Jones, the next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Hollywood Casino 400, which is scheduled to take place this Sunday, October 20. It is set to take place at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas, where he has recorded three consecutive top seven finishes, including a seventh place finish in last year’s May race at the track, a fourth place finish in last year’s playoff race at the track and a third place finish in this year’s May race at the track.

Can Jones turn his fortune around in this 267-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval? NBC is set to broadcast this race live beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET.

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