Erik Jones Hopes Crew-Chief Change Will Elevate Performance
1 month agoAlthough Erik Jones finally earned his first top five in over a year at Talladega, he still ran very poorly, especially for a drafting expert. He only finished fifth at Talladega because he lost the draft, which enabled him to miss the Big One. His performance has not improved, which explains why crew chief Dave Elenz was fired and replaced by John Hunter Nemechek's heretofore crew chief Ben Beshore. Although Beshore scored top fives with Kyle Busch in his last two Cup Series races here and a top ten with Nemechek in the Xfinity Series last year, it looks like it will take more than this to turn Jones's season around as he only qualified 37th. Although he earned his best road course finish here of third in 2020, he hasn't scored a top ten on a road course since 2022. Don't expect that to change just yet.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference