Erik Jones overcomes late penalty to win Xfinity race at Chicagoland

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — Erik Jones could be driving for Joe Gibbs Racing in a Sprint Cup car at some point in the future.

For now, Jones, 19, is content driving for Gibbs in NASCAR's Xfinity series and for Kyle Busch, one of Gibbs' stars, in the truck series.

That feeling might be expected from someone who capped the weekend with an Xfinity victory in the AttiCat 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday.

Jones had won Friday's truck race in Newton, Iowa.

According to NASCAR, Jones is the youngest driver to win two NASCAR national series races in the same weekend.

Jones is third in the truck series standings, which makes him ineligible for Xfinity points. But with two wins and six other top-nine finishes in the Xfinity circuit this season, he'd rank high.

"I'm definitely content racing for truck series points," Jones said after beating Ryan Blaney's Ford to the finish line at Chicagoland by 1.958 seconds in his Toyota-powered Gibbs chassis.

"That team wants to run for a driver's championship, and I felt we owed it to them to be back this year."

When Jones will move up to Sprint Cup is undetermined. Gibbs has a full roster of drivers, but it's expected to happen eventually.

"I'm sure we'll see him in the Cup at some time in the future," said Steve deSouza, Gibbs' Xfinity series manager. "He's doing everything we thought he could do."

Jones took the lead from Blaney with 11 laps remaining in the 200-lap race, grabbing it on the lap 190 restart.

"I went to the top in Turns 1 and 2 and he went to the bottom," Jones said of Blaney. "He got tight or loose and I got a run and barreled into Turn 3. It was a matter of him making a little mistake. I don't know if he'd had won if he hadn't done that."

Jones led 94 laps. Blaney led 43 laps after starting 38th in the field in a backup car.

"It was a patient day, but I felt I threw it away (Saturday) by wrecking our primary," Blaney said. "For our team to get the backup car out and having it leading in the last little bit, that really speaks volumes about how well they prepare."

Jones won despite being one of 19 drivers sent to the back of the field after pitting before the pits were opened at the beginning of a caution. He restarted 10th and on lap 160 and quickly moved through the field.

"It was just kind of a mess," Jones said. "I knew it wasn't the end of our day. I was pretty confident in our car through traffic."

Jones also won a short track race in Berlin, Mich., last Tuesday, making him 3 for 3 this week.

"It's nice going into an off week like this," Jones said. "I can kind of bask in this and take it in."

Pole sitter Austin Dillon finished third, 2.3 seconds behind, with Brendan Gaughan fourth and Xfinity series standings leader Chris Buescher fifth.

Buescher's lead over Ty Dillon in the standings was trimmed to 29 points. Dillon finished ninth.

Buescher fell a lap behind when he was penalized for speeding on pit road close to the halfway point, but got the lap back when Darrell Wallace Jr. caused a caution by scraping the Turn 2 wall.

"With most of the field hitting pit road with the red lights flashing, we got our track position back," Buescher said. "They always say go by the flagger, not the lights, and he had the flag out."

Gibbs had three finishers in the top seven, with Ross Kenseth sixth in his NASCAR debut and Daniel Suarez seventh as the highest finishing NASCAR-designated rookie.

Sunday's race was postponed from Saturday night because of thunderstorms.

*****

FULL RESULTS: Owens Corning AttiCat 300

1. (11) Erik Jones, Toyota, 200 laps, 149.3 rating, 0 points, $97,576.

2. (24) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 200, 125.9, 43, $66,966.

3. (1) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 200, 123.6, 0, $51,456.

4. (5) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 200, 105.1, 41, $41,298.

5. (9) Chris Buescher, Ford, 200, 98.2, 39, $37,841.

6. (2) Ross Kenseth, Toyota, 200, 108.8, 39, $35,523.

7. (7) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 200, 99.6, 38, $32,698.

8. (13) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, 200, 91.5, 36, $30,622.

9. (8) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 200, 89.3, 35, $29,492.

10. (10) Darrell Wallace Jr., Ford, 200, 84.6, 34, $29,760.

11. (3) Elliott Sadler, Ford, 200, 102.5, 33, $29,254.

12. (14) Ryan Reed, Ford, 200, 82.6, 32, $27,699.

13. (4) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 200, 107.1, 32, $27,918.

14. (6) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 200, 92.5, 31, $27,639.

15. (16) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 200, 84, 30, $26,786.

16. (19) J.J. Yeley, Toyota, 200, 72, 28, $26,159.

17. (15) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 200, 74.5, 27, $26,033.

18. (25) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 200, 64.6, 26, $26,107.

19. (18) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 200, 67.5, 26, $25,780.

20. (23) Cale Conley, Toyota, 200, 70.6, 24, $26,154.

21. (17) Ben Rhodes, Chevrolet, 200, 74.2, 23, $25,527.

22. (20) Blake Koch, Toyota, 200, 56.9, 22, $25,371.

23. (27) T.J. Bell, Toyota, 200, 59.7, 21, $25,220.

24. (26) David Starr, Toyota, 200, 55.2, 21, $25,068.

25. (21) Harrison Rhodes, Chevrolet, 200, 55.9, 19, $25,077.

26. (28) Eric McClure, Toyota, 200, 48.8, 18, $24,791.

27. (30) Peyton Sellers, Chevrolet, 200, 49.9, 17, $18,639.

28. (12) Dakoda Armstrong, Ford, 197, 61.2, 16, $24,462.

29. (34) Jimmy Weller, Chevrolet, 197, 43, 15, $18,336.

30. (33) Martin Roy, Chevrolet, 192, 39.9, 14, $24,485.

31. (32) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 192, 38.6, 13, $24,054.

32. (36) Mike Harmon, Dodge, ignition, 165, 34.4, 12, $17,917.

33. (35) Josh Reaume, Toyota, 146, 39.8, 11, $17,801.

34. (22) Dylan Lupton, Chevrolet, accident, 145, 57, 10, $23,690.

35. (31) Derrike Cope, Chevrolet, 134, 32.7, 9, $17,567.

36. (38) Bobby Gerhart, Chevrolet, engine, 69, 31.5, 8, $21,842.

37. (37) Morgan Shepherd, Chevrolet, handling, 44, 32.6, 7, $14,842.

38. (39) John Jackson, Dodge, vibration, 34, 28.7, 6, $13,842.

39. (40) Matt Frahm, Chevrolet, clutch, 5, 30.8, 0, $12,842.

40. (29) Jeff Green, Toyota, vibration, 2, 29.7, 4, $11,842.

RACE STATISTICS

Average speed of winner: 118.812 mph.

Time of race: 2 hours, 31 minutes, 30 seconds.

Margin of victory: 1.958 seconds.

Caution flags: 7 for 39 laps.

Lead changes: 23 among 11 drivers.

Lap leaders: R.Kenseth 1; A.Dillon 2-27; J.Clements 28-29; A.Dillon 30; R.Smith 31-38; E.Jones 39-70; R.Blaney 71-73; E.Jones 74-75; C.Elliott 76; D.Suarez 77; R.Sieg 78-83; R.Blaney 84-85; E.Jones 86-99; A.Dillon 100; B.Gaughan 101-102; R.Smith 103-112; E.Jones 113-130; R.Blaney 131-133; E.Jones 134-150; B.Gaughan 151-152; D.Starr 153-154; R.Blaney 155-189; E.Jones 190-200.

Leaders summary (driver, times led, laps led): E.Jones, 6 times for 94 laps; R.Blaney, 4 times for 43 laps; A.Dillon, 3 times for 28 laps; R.Smith, 2 times for 18 laps; R.Sieg, 1 time for 6 laps; B.Gaughan, 2 times for 4 laps; J.Clements, 1 time for 2 laps; D.Starr, 1 time for 2 laps; R.Kenseth, 1 time for 1 lap; D.Suarez, 1 time for 1 lap; C.Elliott, 1 time for 1 lap.

Top 10 in points: 1. C.Buescher, 528; 2. T.Dillon, 499; 3. C.Elliott, 485; 4. R.Smith, 466; 5. D.Wallace Jr., 462; 6. E.Sadler, 447; 7. B.Scott, 430; 8. B.Gaughan, 419; 9. R.Reed, 410; 10. D.Suarez, 407.