Erik Jones will take over driving duties for the No. 20 Toyota for the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. Photo: Daytona International Speedway
The 2018 NASCAR Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway rolled into its second day on Tuesday as the star drivers from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series gear up for the season-opening events at Daytona next month.
The Day Two program kicked off with media sessions with 2017 NASCAR Rookie of the Year Erik Jones, defending Daytona 500 winner Kurt Busch and 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship runner-up Kyle Busch.
Jones ran his rookie campaign driving for the Joe Gibbs Racing-aligned Furniture Row Racing as a teammate to eventual series champion Martin Truex, Jr., and after a campaign that included five top-five finishes and his first career pole position, Jones was tapped to replace former series champion Matt Kenseth as driver of the JGR No. 20 Toyota.
While Jones’ performance last season was enough to earn his rookie of the year honors, he came up short of a victory – his best finish of the year being a runner-up finish in the Bristol Night Race – and wasn’t able to make the post-season.
This season, though, the expectations are higher – especially after Kenseth was essentially brushed aside to make room for Jones in the Joe Gibbs Racing stable.
“I can remember getting into my first year in the Truck Series part time, and the expectation was to kind of compete and win right off the bat even at that level, and that continued up through the ranks to Xfinity and now to the Cup Series,” said Jones. “I don’t know if the pressure (this season) is any higher. I think just looking at the 20 car itself and the legacy it has at JGR, I think some people kind of had pressure on for that, but for me, I think the pressure is always the same. It’s kind of been like that throughout my career. I’ve always pushed myself to contend and win races, and that hasn’t changed for me.”
Kurt Busch started his 2017 season in high gear when he scored his first-career Daytona 500 victory in last year’s season opener, which also locked him into the Chase right off the bat. It turned out to most fortuitous for Busch, as he never made it back to Victory Lane for the rest of the season.
This year, Busch returns as the defending race winner looking to make it two in a row, with hopefully more to come.
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“It was an amazing win. The prestige, history and value of that race and just being part of it over the years was special. Now to go back there as the defending champion of the Daytona 500 gives me that much more motivation to do it again and make sure nobody shares in all the glory.”
Busch was also rumored to be on the free-agent market last season, after his year-to-year deal with Stewart-Haas Racing expired. While Busch’s next move was the hot topic of discussion in the garage during the summer, Busch ended up signing an additional one-year extension with SHR in December, but would like to explore a long-term deal in the future.
“I had no worries that (a deal with SHR) was not going to happen,” said Busch. “At the end of the day, there are so many parts and pieces to the sponsorship and NASCAR’s entitlement sponsorship. We all agreed that we should do a one-year deal and look to revisit things once we get the season back underway.”
Kyle Busch raced his way in the Championship 4 last November for the second straight year and came within a single position of winning his second consecutive Cup Series title when he finished second to Truex, Jr. in the season-finale event at Homestead, but feels his team out-performed the eventual champion.
“I definitely feel as though we matched them at Homestead,” said Busch. “You know, I’d say that we were actually a little bit better than they were at Homestead, and that’s what makes Homestead so painful is you can be a guy who wins 35 races out of the year, and then that 36th race you can finish second and lose the championship.
“I think if we would have been out front, if we would have been in front of the 78, if we would have reversed situations where we would have been where the 78 was, I feel like we would have drove away, and we won would have by four or five seconds. They wouldn’t even have gotten as close as I got to them.
“You know, that was kind of painful for us. Feels like a letdown, and having the opportunity to be able to win that race, we were right there, we were real close, but wasn’t able to get it done.”
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