Jones looking for his first victory at Pocono

LONG POND — Is this the one?

Could this be the week Erik Jones finally breaks through?

The second-year Joe Gibbs Racing driver has logged impressive stats at Pocono Raceway. While it’s a small sample size – two starts – Jones is statistically the top-rated driver in a number of crucial categories, which includes races since 2005.

Jones had no trouble taming the notoriously distinct track, finishing third in his Monster Energy Series debut last June, which also marked his first career Cup top-five. He responded with an eighth-place finish when the series returned to the track later in the summer.

Sporting an average finish of 5.5 and an average running position of 8.312, Jones has a series-best driver rating of 106.5.

That quick success has Jones feeling optimistic heading into Sunday’s Pocono 400.

“I think anytime you go back to a place where you ran well and feel comfortable at, it’s always a confidence boost,” said Jones. “Coming back this weekend, and especially coming off a weekend where we had such a fast car (Jones started fourth and finished 19th at the Coca Cola 600 last weekend), you just feel like you’re gonna have another good weekend automatically, whether it works out or not.

“When you get here, you feel confident, and you’re definitely excited to get back on track. I was excited to get on the track this morning and see what we got. So I think it is a big confidence boost when you come back to a track you run well at. You never (look forward to going) somewhere you run poor at, or have not had good runs at, you never look forward to that too much. You feel like you’re always trying to improve, and I’m still trying to improve here. But you definitely feel more comfortable coming in, and more confident.”

Jones ran one of his best races of the year at Pocono last June. He led 20 laps, his second-most laps led in a race during his rookie season. Jones led 260 laps and finished second at Bristol in the fall.

Known as the “Tricky Triangle” for a reason, Pocono can be an acquired taste for many drivers.

But the track can be a perfect fit for some early in their careers. Ryan Blaney got his first career Cup win at Pocono last June.

And it doesn’t hurt to have a few teammates who have mastered the track. Kyle Busch, who dominated last week’s Coca Cola 600, won the July race at Pocono a year ago.

One of Jones’ other teammates, Denny Hamlin, has won at Pocono four times.

“I’ve actually got a lot of laps here, not in a Cup car, but I’ve had some ARCA races here, some truck races here, an Xfinity race here, so I’ve been here a lot,” said Jones. “I’ve been coming here since 2013. That was my first time coming here, and I feel comfortable here. I feel like it’s a good track, and a track that I like.

“But there definitely is a different driving style here. It’s helped having Kyle as a teammate. Kyle has been really fast here in a Cup car, and has been the last few years. Having his data, and his knowledge to lean on, has helped a lot.”

While he’s got some experience in other series, Jones, who earned Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series while driving the No. 77 Furniture Row Racing Toyota, acknowledged that taming a Cup car at Pocono is a different animal.

“It is a very different track in the Cup car than it is with anything else, with the shifting,” said the 22-year-old. “You can really actually make a few mistakes along the way and still have a really good lap.

“But it’s definitely tough. It’s not an easy place. But we had two really fast cars here last year, which helped with my learning curve, having good speed in our race cars. I think that accelerated things a lot. But I do feel comfortable here.”

Jones has shown speed throughout this season. He has recorded five top 10s through the first 13 races of 2018 in his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota and led a season-high 64 laps before posting a season-best finish of fourth at Texas Motor Speedway last month. He is 13th in the points standings.

While last week’s run was disappointing, Jones is confident his team has what it take to get over the hump.

And it might happen this weekend.

“I think we’re definitely capable of it,” said Jones. “I don’t think that’s in question. I think it’s just a matter of having the right weekend. I thought, honestly, last week at Charlotte, might have been our shot. We had good pace and good speed, unfortunately got some damage which slowed us down a little bit. Still climbed back up to second towards the end, and just had a couple mistakes that took us out of it.

“I think it’s in the realm of possibility every week. We just need to hit it right, and have good speed. We’ve been getting our cars better and better the last month-and-a-half. I don’t necessarily know that we were down on speed. But the driving style, the handling wasn’t quite fitting what I wanted, and I feel like we’ve gotten a lot closer to that over the last couple weeks. So it’s there, we just need to have a good weekend.”

Jones will start 25th on Sunday.