It was the Jones’ Boys Show in Friday night’s American Ethanol 200 Camping World Truck Series race at Iowa Speedway.
Erik Jones won his first Truck race of the season and fifth of his career, while Brandon – no relation – finished second.
For Erik Jones, who started from the pole for the fourth time this season (and third straight race), it was the fourth race this season that he’s led the most laps – and the first one where at the conclusion that he was finally able to reach Victory Lane.
It also was Erik Jones’ second consecutive Truck win at Iowa, having won there in this event last season.
Tyler Reddick finished third, followed by Matt Crafton, who remains atop the point standings.
Christopher Bell finished fifth, followed by Timothy Bell, Spencer Gallagher (who rallied back from an earlier wreck), Daniel Hemric, Cole Custer and John Wes Townley.
How Erik Jones won: Certainly, starting from the pole helped. But there was so much more, particularly his domination, leading 112 of the 200 laps around the 7/8-mile track. Jones took the lead for the final time on Lap 157 and motored on the remaining 43 laps for the win, at one point stretching his lead to over three seconds. Here’s what Jones said after the race: “It’s been a long time coming and sure feels good to get a win here in Iowa. This was kind of where we turned our season around last year and got our Tundra into Victory Lane. It’s just awesome. What a day, what a day. Sat on the pole, led a ton of laps and won the race. That’s how you do it. And it feels good to finally to put it all together and win at the end of the day.”
Who also had a good day: Matt Crafton rallied for a fourth-place finish. Even so, he still maintains the lead in the Truck point standings. “We just couldn’t get the momentum up top, and it just takes so long when you get stuck down on the bottom, it’s so aggravating,” Crafton said. “Finally, when we got clear we had a really fast truck, but we could just not get clear of him. But all in all, not a terrible day.” … Give credit where it’s due: young Christopher Bell earned the highest finish of his young career by finishing fifth.
Who had a bad day: John Hunter Nemechek was having a very good day but inadvertently was caught up in a wreck with Caleb Holman on Lap 158. While Nemechek suffered minor damage, he went from what would likely have been a top 10 day to a disappointing 23rd-place finish. “I’ll have to take responsibility for that,” Nemechek told Fox Sports 1. “My spotter said clear, but it’s always the driver’s responsibility to check that. It’s one of those deals where we learn from it, move on and go get ‘em next week.”
Notable: Third-place finisher Tyler Reddick continues to have one of the fastest and most successful trucks in the series. With his third-place finish, Reddick now has two wins and four other top-five finishes in the last seven races. His lowest finish since that streak began is a still-respectable 13th-place finish at Kansas.
Quote of the day: “It’s awesome. We finally got the monkey off our back. It was actually a gorilla.” – Ryan Fugle, crew chief for race winner Erik Jones, who finally earned his first win of the season after several attempts fell short.
What’s next: The truck series has the next few weeks off. The next race is the UNOH 225 on Thursday, July 9 (7:30 pm ET), at Kentucky Speedway.
Follow @JerryBonkowski