DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Erik Jones drove a mangled No. 20 Sport Clips Toyota into Gatorade Victory Lane on Sunday, February 9th at Daytona International Speedway after taking the checkered flag in the 2020 Busch Clash after the 3rd round of NASCAR Overtime.
Jones was one of just six cars left on the track after the other 12 in the field had been retired due to incidents. All 18 cars that participated in the clash had been involved in one of the five cautions in the race, that was drawn out over 21 laps. The race was extended to 88 laps and went down as the longest Clash in the history of the event.
Beaten and battle scared, on the last lap of the race, his teammate Denny Hamlin, who was a lap down, got connected with Jones No. 20 Toyota and gave him the push he needed to secure the win.
An elated Hamlin after the race commented, “It’s so awesome. I mean I knew [Jones] needed to strap in because that last lap I was going to push him. I didn’t care if I was going to push him into a wreck. I was just going to push him.” Hamlin added, “It was fun. I mean my car was so, so fast. Proud of the effort there. Glad we got a team win, I mean that’s all I could really do at the end was push him to victory.”
This was a compilation of overcoming for the JGR teammates. Earlier in the race, Jones overshot his pit box on a green flag stop and had to back up to get the pit stop in. There was even a point when Denny was asked if he wanted to call it and as Joe Gibbs described, “Denny said no, keep working on it!”, continuing to describe the race result as, “Two drivers and two crew chiefs just refusing to quit.”
Of the four cautions that were due to on-track incidents, Jones was involved in three of them. Without the help of Hamlin, ones recognized the win wouldn’t have been possible. In a true testament to the team comradery, Jones gave final credit to his teammate.
“Well, I have to thank Denny [Hamlin] off the bat. He pushed us really good there in the end. He got us the lead and got us upfront. It was wild.”
Of the four cautions that were due to on-track incidents, Jones was involved in three of them. His pit crew hammered his hood back down multiple times and put in numerous pit stops of work to keep the No. 20 Sport Clips Toyota out on the track.
“Yeah, it’s pretty bad, but the Camry kept running strong. We came down and didn’t really know what we were trying to fix. I couldn’t see it, but could tell the hood was pretty torn up, and the right front was as well,” said Jones after taking the checkered flag. “I didn’t know it was that bad to be honest with you until now, but it sure feels good to come out of here with a win, especially in a race with perseverance like that. You don’t want to give up and when it pays off in the end, it makes it extra special.”
Written by Adrian Beecher
