Back in the top 16 Cup playoff rankings after the second race at Pocono, Erik Jones feels that he will make the playoffs.
Jones finished third in the second race of the NASCAR Cup doubleheader at Pocono Raceway. The finish is Jones’s best for the season. He said:
“We feel like we definitely should make the playoffs. We’ve done that the last few years and I don’t see this year as any different.
“Hopefully we can keep moving forward. We’ve got good racetracks coming up for us, places we’ve run well at in the past, I think we’re going to keep racking up some good finishes here and hopefully get a win here pretty soon.
“I think our cars are way faster than a 16th-place team. Hopefully we can keep up the good runs. We just need three-four more races running strong like we need to, get some stage points and we’ll be in the top 12 pretty quickly.
“… It’s not even a question in my mind, making the playoffs or not. I feel we’ll be strong enough here to get a win at a race here in the next month or two.”
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The finish put Jones in the 16th position in the NASCAR standings. As the one-year contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing that Jones signed last year is about to end, Jones said that talks are underway regarding his future with the team.
“We started talking to them about next year and what we’re going to do moving forward.
“I feel like right now that’s kind of the plan, working with them. We’ll see what happens, but I feel good about it right now moving forward.”