NASCAR
Erik Jones and Darlington—An Underrated And Overlooked History
This year’s Southern 500 victory going to Erik Jones should not have been that surprising. Driver 43 has stats at The Track Too Tough to Tame that best nearly everyone else. This comes in spite of not being a Playoff contender entering the Labor Day weekend classic. Now a two-time Southern 500 winner, let’s take a detailed look at the Michigan driver’s South Carolina success.
In 10 career Darlington starts, Erik Jones has a whopping two wins, five top-fives, and seven top-10s. His 132 laps led here also trails only Bristol for most circuits paced at one venue. With a 10.7 average finish, Jones was not worse than eighth in South Carolina until 2021. 10.7 at Darlington is Jones’ fifth-best average finish at a single track, but second-best at a track with double-digit starts. Jones’ average finish here is also third-best of current Cup drivers, only behind Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson. Darlington is also tied as Jones’ most prolific track for top-fives, top-10s, and top-20s. Coincidentally enough, both of Jones’ Darlington victories came after beating a Gibbs car to the line.
Going past just the Cup Series, Jones adapted well to Darlington from his first appearances here in Xfinity. Across two Darlington Xfinity races, Jones was sixth in 2016 and fourth in 2017. They say different courses are built for different horses; for Erik Jones that may apply perfectly to the egg-shaped facility.
“I just really like this track,” Jones said Sunday after the win. “There’s tracks as a driver that you’re really comfortable at, feel really good about, and Darlington is one of those places for me. Here, Bristol, there’s a handful of tracks in the Cup Series for me that I know going into it, if the car is close and good, we can have a shot to win. This weekend was no different. I knew we had a good car coming into it. I knew we had made some good gains and had a shot to go and run up front.
I’m blessed to win this race twice. There’s guys that have never won this race, very successful guys, but such a cool trophy. I kept that one in my house for a long time the last time I won it just to see those faces and those names. That’s pretty special for me to be on, and I’ve been a big fan of the history of the sport for all my life, as a kid growing up and even until today.
But I just love this place, love the racing here. I love this race specifically. I feel like when we started coming here in the spring, I ran okay in the spring race, feel like we’re always a top-10 car, but I feel like this is the race I always have circled, from the length of it to the transition from day to night, just every bit of it I love.”
In short, Darlington is a historically-great track for the Byron, Michigan native, being host to two of his three career victories. Perhaps Erik Jones and the Petty GMS 43 team should never again be counted out of a Darlington win. Jones took this past week’s Southern 500 triumph against all odds as a Playoff spoiler. Who’s to stop this team from another Darlington win in the spring? As this organization continues to grow and adapt, they will only get better on a week-to-week basis. Bringing aboard Noah Gragson as a rookie for 2023, Darlington may not be the only victory lane visited by Petty GMS Racing.
Written by Peter Stratta
Be sure to follow us on Twitter
Be sure to follow the writer on Twitter
Photo Credit to Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR
