Xfinity Chase notebook: Format adds aggression to Jones' style
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[September 21, 2016]
The Sports Xchange
By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
Distributed by the Sports Xchange
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Top-seeded Erik
Jones didn't wait for the seven-race XFINITY Series playoff to alter
his racing style to suit the new elimination format.
By his own admission, Jones raced conservatively last year in
winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship. But the
win-and-you're-in structure of the XFINITY Chase has given the
driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota more freedom to race
for victories at any cost.
"I feel like I've raced this year a lot different than I would race
any other year," said Jones, who led XFINITY regulars with four wins
this season. "Last year in the Truck Series, I started out the year
kind of going for wins, and the second half of the year, I was very
conservative, taking what I could get.
"If a wins comes along, we took it, tried to take advantage of it,
to get it. But I was just trying to top-10 it the whole way. This
year in the XFINITY Series, I've just been going all-out to win the
race. ... We've just been going for wins every week. It's nice to be
able to do that, and it's worked out for us."
BRENDAN GAUGHAN TRYING TO REVISIT THE TITLE THAT GOT AWAY
It may not be a quintessential case of deja vu, but Brendan Gaughan
has been to Homestead-Miami Speedway before, under similar
circumstances.
Now, as one of 12 drivers to qualify for the inaugural NASCAR
XFINITY Series Chase that begins Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway
(8 p.m. ET on NBCSN), Gaughan hopes he'll have a chance to claim a
prize that eluded him 13 years ago-a title in one of NASCAR's top
three touring series.
In 2003, Gaughan entered the final NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
race at Homestead as the points leader in a four-driver race for the
championship. In addition to Gaughan, Ted Musgrave, Travis Kvapil
and Dennis Setzer had a shot at the title.
Musgrave's truck owner, Jim Smith, had five entries in the final
event, and one of those drivers, Marty Houston, tangled with Gaughan
in a violent crash on Lap 100. After Musgrave was penalized for
jumping a subsequent restart, Kvapil claimed the championship with a
sixth-place finish.
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Though Gaughan says he spends little time regretting the missed
opportunity, he does crave another opportunity to compete for a
title in the final race of the season, albeit under a different
format in another series.
"I've been in a Homestead race where four drivers were racing for
the championship, and sadly, I was not the one who won it -- sadly
for me, not for Travis (Kvapil)," Gaughan said on Tuesday during
XFINITY Series Chase Media Day at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. "I would
love to have all that pressure again and be in that situation again,
and my goal is to get back to Homestead to be one of those four.
"I've always said to this day, that race that we ran at Homestead
that day, we were the fastest truck on the race track that day. We
were brilliant. One second of life-couldn't have done anything
different. It was just one second that you couldn't change.
"And I would love a chance, not to change that one second, but to
make a new one second and end up getting by that wreck and standing
on that podium. ... I would love to go back to Homestead and finish
what I was trying to do 13 years ago and put a great cherry on top
of a career for me."
Not that Gaughan's career is about to be over. The driver of the No.
62 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet said he'll be back for another
season next year, and the Chase format is a strong reason he'll
continue to compete.
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"What made me want to keep racing was this Chase format, this
excitement around this," Gaughan said. "Now, instead of battling for
fifth place, and we're 89 points out of this championship -- and we
can get to maybe second or third if a guy has a bad race and we have
a good ones, and you're just watching points and going 'Oh, man,
let's see how far we can get' -- we're racing for the championship."
ELLIOTT SADLER HOLDS A UNIQUE DISTINCTION
Does experience matter?
If it does, Elliott Sadler should have an edge. Of the 12 drivers
competing in the inaugural NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase, he's the
only one who also qualified for the original 10-driver NASCAR Sprint
Cup Series Chase in 2004, finishing ninth in the final standings.
"I don't know if that's good or bad," Sadler chuckled. "I do
remember that, being a part of the first-ever (Sprint) Cup Chase and
now this one. I think that's pretty cool."
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But will his long-standing NASCAR experience help him in a Chase
that's top-heavy on 20-somethings?
"I don't think so," said Sadler, the regular-season series leader
who saw his substantial advantage disappear when points were reset
for the Chase. "It's not like I'm a seasoned quarterback that can
read the defense better than a rookie quarterback coming in. I think
that's when experience plays a part.
"I think now it's just about which teams can get their cars the
fastest, what driver can get the best information and not make
mistakes on the track. I feel like everybody that's a part of this
Chase -- all 12 guys -- can do just as good a job as anybody else,
no matter their age or where they're from or how many years they've
raced."
PRESSURE'S OFF FOR BRANDON JONES AFTER NEW DEAL
Brandon Jones may not know where he'll stand after Homestead, but he
does know he'll be back in the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing
Chevrolet next season, thanks to a deal for 2017 that was announced
on Tuesday.
Jones told the NASCAR Wire Service that getting his situation
squared away for next season is a major weight off his shoulders.
"I'm tickled to death," Jones said. "All smiles for me these couple
of weeks here. I knew we've been negotiating with RCR again for '17,
and they've really been stepping their program up."
It also allows a worry-free approach to the inaugural NASCAR XFINITY
Series Chase.
"You kind of relax a little bit," Jones said. "You don't have to
worry so much about being so perfect and everything like that. "I
think these top 10s, we just wear those out for this first round (of
the Chase), get inside that top five a little bit, and it's easily
going to transfer.
"Then we're going to start looking at taking some chances on pit
road and trying to get a win or get something pretty crazy or
something like that. We're going to get better for sure, but that's
what it's going to take to get inside that top four for Homestead."
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