Two weekends ago, Denny Hamlin won the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, the second of his three consecutive victories and his second in a row after earning the pole for both races but then (effectively) starting both of them from the rear of the field. And he won by 11 seconds.
Hamlin is hotter than fish grease right now, and his Michigan success came with an emotional angle, as he tied his long-time teammate, the late Kyle Busch, for ninth place on the all-time Cup Series wins list with 63.
The Joe Gibbs Racing star has been hogging up so many headlines, including this past weekend at Pocono Raceway when he won for the 64th time, that you probably forgot who even finished second at Michigan.
It was Erik Jones. Driving for Legacy Motor Club, one of the slowest multi-car teams in the Cup Series field. And after another solid sixth place finish at Pocono, he's now inside the provisional 16-driver Chase field.
Let's talk about him a bit too, shall we?
Erik Jones is making a statement, and high-level Cup Series owners better start listening
It's hard to believe that Jones, once touted as Joe Gibbs Racing's next big thing, is now in his sixth season with the various ownership groups that have fielded Richard Petty's famous No. 43 ride. And all he's done in it is overachieve.
Jones has had three teammates in the past five years at Legacy and beaten the brakes off all of them. John Hunter Nemechek, the current pilot of the team's No. 42 machine, is by far the most talented of those three, and he currently sits 11 positions behind the Michigan native in the standings.
In the past six points-paying races, Jones has finished 13th or better five times. He's had an average running position inside the top 20 in each of the past seven. Oh, and his runner-up at his home track also came from the rear of the field, by the way.
Jones is getting more out of his equipment right now than just about any other driver in the Cup Series. And it begs the question as to why bigger and better organizations aren't taking notice.
Sadly, we all know the answer. He doesn't bring funding, and unfortunately for him, he's viewed as someone who already had his chance on a top team. But it's also not like Jones was bad with Gibbs. He won twice, and he scored 13 or more top 10 finishes in all four of his seasons (counting his 2017 campaign with the affiliated Furniture Row Racing).
He wasn't J.J. Yeley. He wasn't Casey Mears at Hendrick Motorsports or David Ragan at Roush Fenway Racing. And he was young. In fact, he was, and still is, 18 months younger than the next-in-line, shiny new toy who replaced him, that being Christopher Bell.
Flaming out with one top organization hasn't stopped drivers of similar skill from getting a billion chances to prove themselves elsewhere. And seats like RFK Racing's No. 60 Ford and Spire Motorsports' No. 71 Chevrolet are well-funded enough that they owe zero loyalty to the mediocrity their current drivers are producing.
This is the time for Jones to be handing out resumes to anybody who will accept one. He needs to sell high on himself, because Legacy goes through this cycle every year. They have a cute little hot streak where it looks like they're turning a sustained corner as an organization, but for every step forward they take, they take two steps back.
Right now, the No. 43 car is just good enough to where its driver is able to show what he's capable of. He'd be capable of a lot more if he finally got the opportunity he deserves.
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