Erik Jones Survives Wild Daytona Race for First Cup Win

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Erik Jones won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on Saturday night from Daytona International Speedway.

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Jones survived a wild race where multiple wrecks took out half the field.  Jones was involved in the first big accident, but his team was able to repair the car and get Jones back to the front. 

Jones said he didn’t think his car would be able to compete following the early damage.

“I thought we were out of it and then we were right back in it,” Jones said.  “I didn’t think we were going to have a shot to win it there at about halfway, but we got ourselves back into contention.”

The victory was Jones’ first in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, and he said he never thought it would be at a superspeedway like Daytona.

“I’ve never been that good on superspeedways and never really thought this our shot to win,” Jones said.  “It’s the first win, and not much has felt better than this one.”

Martin Truex Jr. was leading on the final restart, but he couldn’t hold off Jones over the final two laps. 

Truex said he just wasn’t able to block Jones’ run in time.

“I just got to get better at the blocking; it’s never been my strong suit,” Truex said.  “It was a good run, but we came up a little short.”

“They destroyed some cars tonight…cool to get to the end.”

Unofficial results:

1. Erik Jones

2. Martin Truex Jr.

3. AJ Allmendinger

4. Kasey Kahne

5. Chris Buescher

6. Ty Dillon

7. Matt DiBenedetto

8. Ryan Newman

9. Austin Dillon

10. Alex Bowman

11. Jeffrey Earnhardt

12. Brendan Gaughan

13. DJ Kennington

14. Darrell Wallace Jr.

15. David Ragan

16. Ray Black Jr.

17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

18. JJ Yeley

19. Kevin Harvick

20. Trevor Bayne

21. Ross Chastain

22. Clint Bowyer

23. Jimmie Johnson

24. Landon Cassill

25. Joey Gase

26. Michael McDowell

27. Aric Almirola

28. Paul Menard

29. Kyle Larson

30. Jamie McMurray

31. Corey LaJoie

32. William Byron

33. Kyle Busch

34. Chase Elliott

35. Daniel Suarez

36. Brad Keselowski

37. Kurt Busch

38. Denny Hamlin

39. Joey Logano

40. Ryan Blaney

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