Erik Jones reached a career milestone at Texas Motor Speedway as he made his 300th Cup Series start. He had an impressive P5 finish in the Wurth 400, but it could have been even better if he could have avoided unfortunate pit-road penalties.
Erik Jones Frustrated by Pit-Road Mistakes in 300th Cup Start at Texas
Texas Motor Speedway has turned into a true grind in the Next Gen era. The last five events in the Lone Star State, including Sunday’s Wurth 400, which saw a season-high 12 cautions, have all featured double-digit yellow flags.
Jones and Legacy Motor Club capitalized on the chaos at Texas, though their momentum was disrupted by two pit-road penalties. The No. 43 Toyota showed promise in Saturday’s practice and started 14th on the grid.
Jones opened his milestone 300th Cup Series start on a high note, breaking into the top 10 in Stage 1 to earn his first stage point in over a month. But the momentum didn’t hold, as he slipped to P21 by the end of Stage 2, with teammate John Hunter Nemechek running a steady P12.
The final stage was pure mayhem, with seven cautions wiping out multiple frontrunners. Jones, however, managed to avoid the trouble and steadily climbed the leaderboard.
When the overtime restart rolled around, he found himself on the second row, outside lane, just behind Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney.
Jones was running P6 when the white flag waved, but he powered past Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on the last lap to grab P5. It’s his first top-five since last year’s Playoff race at Talladega, and his first on a non-superspeedway since Kansas in the 2023 postseason.
Jones hadn’t cracked the top 10 all season, with a best result of P12 in the Daytona 500, until Sunday’s strong P5 run brought much-needed relief. However, the Michigan native admitted it was a missed opportunity to finish even higher.
Erik Jones is P5 in his 300th start.
"It was a sloppy day," he tells @AlanCavanna. "Two pit road penalties is tough. Just happy to come back and get a top 5. It would've been disappointing to have a car this strong and just throw it away. Hopefully we can get rolling."
— PRN (@PRNlive) May 4, 2025
“It was a sloppy day in a lot of ways,” Jones said after the race. “We had two pit road penalties, but just happy to come back from it and get a top-five. It would have been pretty disappointing to have a car this good, kind of our first car this year that’s been pretty strong, to throw it away.”
“I thought we were headed that way, but it turned out well. I would love this to be the start of our summer stretch and just keep it going.”
Jones is realistic about the challenges ahead for the two-car team, but he’s seen the work that’s been put in behind the scenes.
The offseason changes paid off early on, with Nemechek grabbing two top-10s and co-owner Jimmie Johnson landing on the podium in the Daytona 500.
“Last year was tough, and this year started out a little bit tough, and we’ve had our ups and downs,” Jones said. “I’m just happy to have a good car.”