Category: RC Truck Series

On Sunday at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, Erik Jones checked off another box on his resume – road course race winner.

Starting from the second spot, Jones ran up front throughout the race, getting by Cole Custer on a late race restart to take the lead. He then held off Alex Tagliani in the closing laps to score the victory.

“I knew we had to clear him (Alex Tagliani) in (turn) one and if we didn’t clear him in one that (turns) two and three were going to be tough and he was obviously wanting to win bad,” Jones noted. “We raced hard and hopefully we put on a good show. It was fun to be out there and have him chase you down. It’s nerve-wracking and you’re doing all you can and wondering how he’s finding speed in some corners and you’re not. It’s just cool to see it play out like that and get the lead real late and be able to hold it off and bring home the win.”

Crew chief Rudy Fugle admits the team played a conservative strategy with the points situation but felt that they would have a shot based on the speed they had shown.

“We were right there with the 29 (Alex Tagliani) and depending on how things worked out, I knew we’d have a shot and the 00 (Cole Custer) was faster today than I thought he was going to be, so we had to deal with him. It all worked out and this is a great win up here,” he added.

Jones came into the event as one of the early race favorites as he has been strong at each track this year, but also finished third last year. He credited the team on the victory with bringing a good piece, noting that this was the same truck from last year, but just improved. Fugle noted that it starts with Toyota and Toyota Racing Development giving them the support and tools that they need.

“These races are won back at the shop and then once we get here, we see how things are going,” Fugle explained. “I have a strategy and the team comes up with a strategy with my engineer and stuff and you just keep getting – you learn more, you learn what your fuel mileage is, you learn how the tires wear and you just take a guess at it and then there’s still a little bit of feel, you know? We almost missed the first pit stop with the caution coming out right when it did – it could have been way worse. It just worked out perfect where we didn’t get hurt. Some of that is just that race feel and experience and the difference there, but it’s definitely won at the shop –everybody back there and everybody back at Toyota.”

Jones has also worked at perfecting his road course craft, going to the Ron Fellows School last year, and the Bondurant School this year.

“I saw it as if, ‘Hey, if I can get a tenth each time I go to those schools, it’s worth it,’ and I feel like I did,” he commented. “Just kind of put all that together and came here for the first year and downloaded everything and tried to get a little bit better for this year and figure out where I needed to better and where I needed to improve and just kind of figured it out as I went I guess and it’s just fun. I just always enjoyed it from the start. It wasn’t something I went out and did and was like, ‘Oh, man, I don’t like this at all,’ so it’s just something that always was fun for me and I wanted to get good at.”

For Jones, it marks his second win of the season and hands him the points lead, three points ahead of Matt Crafton. With knowledge that he will be moving up to the XFINITY Series next year with Joe Gibbs Racing, certainly scoring a truck championship before he moves up the ladder is high on the list.

By Stephanie Wallcraft

BOWMANVILLE, Ontario – Two weeks ago in the NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Alex Tagliani got turned out of the lead by Regan Smith and lost his shot at a win.

Today in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Tagliani had a chance to be the one doing the turning.

Heading into Turn 5B on the final lap, Tagliani says he was in a position to push Erik Jones aside and claim victory for himself. But he didn’t. Instead, Tagliani held back as Jones cruised to his second win of the season and vaulted to the top of the NCWTS point standings.

“If I would have stayed where I was he would have been gone in (Turn) 5B,” Tagliani said. “I don’t drive that way. I just want to continue the trend.”

Tagliani thought he would have time to take one more clean shot at Jones through the final series of turns, but a broken third gear took that chance away.

“It shredded completely,” he said. “It was pretty much good all race. I felt a couple of times it was kind of scratchy on the downshift, but no sign it was going to be bad. As soon as I put third gear on the back straight, it just went.

“I put it in fourth and it just kind of limped all the way back home.”

The 19-year-old Jones felt the pressure from veteran road course racer Tagliani down the stretch, but maintained his concentration to become the first driver to lead the entire last lap of a NCWTS race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

“It was a blast,” Jones said of the race. “It was nerve-wracking. It’s a little intense when you’ve got a guy like that running you down for 15 laps.”

It turned out that Jones and Tagliani had shared a parade truck before the race and had a philosophical discussion about racing with respect. Tagliani told Jones he knew he was in a heated points battle and that Jones didn’t have to worry about him trying the same thing Smith had done to him at Mid-Ohio.

“We had a pretty long talk about racing people the way you want to be raced,” Jones said. “I’ve never been one to want to move somebody to win a race, and he hasn’t, either. It’s nice to see that respect, especially from a veteran like that to me.

“It’s not something he had to do. It means a lot to me that he did.”

Jones worked hard to improve his road course craft coming into this weekend. Time spent at a pair of driving schools paid off, as did a strong effort by the team to improve their truck.

“We had a good truck last year, and we were able to do some improving on our Tundra to get it to where it needed to be for this year,” Jones said. “I was able to improve on myself and fix some of my mistakes this year as well and get a little bit better.”

Matt Crafton finished in second place, which keeps him second in the point standings behind Jones, who now holds a three-point advantage. Tyler Reddick, the standings leader entering the race, placed 19th and is now third (15 points behind Jones) in the championship hunt.

Ben Kennedy, Daniel Hemric, and Tagliani rounded out the top five.

Cole Custer mounted one of the strongest challenges to Jones in the late going, but contact between he and Tagliani took him out of the running with 11 laps to go. He ended up in 10th.

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race – Chevrolet Silverado 250
Canadian Tire Motorsport ParkSunday, August 30, 2015

    1. (2) Erik Jones #, Toyota, 64, $64245.

    2. (3) Matt Crafton, Toyota, 64, $48243.

    3. (6) Ben Kennedy, Toyota, 64, $35572.

    4. (13) Daniel Hemric #, Chevrolet, 64, $27034.

    5. (1) Alex Tagliani(i), Ford, 64, $26832.

    6. (9) Johnny Sauter, Toyota, 64, $21752.

    7. (7) Cameron Hayley #, Toyota, 64, $21202.

    8. (14) Spencer Gallagher #, Chevrolet, 64, $20651.

    9. (12) John H. Nemechek #, Chevrolet, 64, $19661.

    10. (5) Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 64, $20500.

    11. (8) Gray Gaulding, Toyota, 64, $19441.

    12. (19) Brian Wong, Toyota, 64, $16997.

    13. (18) TJ Bell(i), Chevrolet, 64, $19137.

    14. (17) Mason Mingus, Chevrolet, 64, $19027.

    15. (22) Ray Black Jr. #, Chevrolet, 64, $19406.

    16. (23) Jordan Anderson, Chevrolet, 64, $18697.

    17. (16) Tyler Young, Chevrolet, 64, $18586.

    18. (24) Korbin Forrister #, Chevrolet, 64, $18476.

    19. (4) Tyler Reddick, Ford, 62, $18367.

    20. (29) Jennifer Jo Cobb, Chevrolet, 61, $17506.

    21. (28) Norm Benning, Chevrolet, 59, $16896.

    22. (10) Timothy Peters, Toyota, 57, $15787.

    23. (15) Matt Tifft, Toyota, 56, $15566.

    24. (27) Travis Kvapil, Chevrolet, 55, $15455.

    25. (20) John Wes Townley, Chevrolet, 54, $15551.

    26. (11) Brandon Jones #, Chevrolet, Accident, 43, $15346.

    27. (21) Daniel Brown, Chevrolet, 42, $15291.

    28. (25) BJ McLeod, Chevrolet, Brakes, 21, $15013.

    29. (26) Justin Jennings, Chevrolet, Brakes, 12, $14958.

    30. (31) Josh Reaume(i), RAM, Engine, 10, $14458.

    31. (30) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, Engine, 0, $12958.

Average Speed of Race Winner:  83.476 mph.
Time of Race:  01 Hrs, 53 Mins, 07 Secs. Margin of Victory:  1.665 Seconds.
Caution Flags:  5 for 13 laps.
Lead Changes:  14 among 6 drivers.
Lap Leaders:   A. Tagliani(i) 1-6; E. Jones # 7-12; C. Hayley # 13-25; C. Custer 26; A. Tagliani(i) 27; C. Custer 28-36; E. Jones # 37; M. Crafton 38; T. Bell(i) 39; C. Custer 40-46; E. Jones # 47; C. Custer 48-52; E. Jones # 53-61; A. Tagliani(i) 62; E. Jones # 63-64.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  C. Custer 4 times for 22 laps; E. Jones # 5 times for 19 laps; C. Hayley # 1 time for 13 laps; A. Tagliani(i) 3 times for 8 laps; M. Crafton 1 time for 1 lap; T. Bell(i) 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 10 in Points: E. Jones # – 590; M. Crafton – 587; T. Reddick – 575; J. Sauter – 535; D. Hemric # – 500; C. Hayley # – 489; T. Peters – 470; J. Townley – 466; S. Gallagher # – 452; B. Kennedy – 451.

By Staff report | NASCAR.com

Wheeling the No. 29 BK Racing Ford at 110.539 mph in a second-lap attempt, road course veteran Alex Tagliani earned the Keystone Light Pole Award at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Saturday’s two-round qualifying session. The Quebec native and road course veteran shattered the previous track record with a 80.084-second lap around the track.

This marks Tagliani’s first Camping World Truck Series start of 2015.

Tagliani’s late run took the top spot away from Erik Jones, who settled for second with a fastest lap of 110.466 mph in his No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota.

Reigning series champion Matt Crafton (110.113 mph), BKR’s Tyler Reddick(110.002 mph) and JR Motorsports’ Cole Custer (109.777 mph) rounded out the top five.

Reddick led the first round, propelling his No. 19 Ford at 110.276 mph, while teammate Tagliani drafted with him.

Robert Mitten brought out the red flag in the first round of qualifying when he smacked the tire wall off Turn 8, leaving his No. 53 Dodge nearly vertical. Mitten climbed out unharmed and ultimately secured a 22nd-place starting position.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is back on track Sunday at 1:30 p.m. ET for the Chevrolet Silverado 250 (FOX Sports 1).

Full qualifying results