April 25, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Erik Jones continues to build on opportunity with Petty GMS

Any old-school NASCAR fan had to feel a bit of nostalgia watching the No. 43 Petty GMS Motorsports Chevrolet leading the pack at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday.

Sporting the U.S. Air Force colors, Erik Jones wheeled his race car to a season-best 25 laps at the point—more laps than he led all of last year.

Although Jones lost the lead of the Geico 500 coming out of the final corner, the 25-year-old racer’s sixth-place finish was his second-best result of the season.

“It's typical here,” said Jones who finished .311-seconds behind winner Ross Chastain. Been close here so many times, in this race and the fall race. U.S. Air Force Chevy had good speed, felt good to be up front.”

Jones sixth-place run was not an anomaly. In his last five starts at Talladega, he has posted four top-10 finishes. He was wrecked coming to the checkers in this race one year ago following contact with Kaz Grala. His first Cup win came with similar style racing at Daytona in July of 2018.

“Happy to run up front, lead laps,” Jones said. “Would really love to get the 43 in Victory Lane. I thought today might be the day. All day long we were fast and had speed. Especially being up front there at the end, the last 10, I knew we had a shot, but just couldn't quite close it out.”

At least this year Jones has a fighting chance. The partnership with Maury Gallagher’s GMS Racing along with the addition of crew chief Dave Elenz has been a game-changer for the No. 43 team’s effort. On Sunday, Jones earned 37 points after gaining stage points in the first two stages then scoring his third top-10 finish in 2022. It’s the most points he’s earned throughout the course of a race since Auto Club Speedway, where he finished second in both stages before finishing third.

Elenz’ call to run the same set of left-side tires throughout the entire race provided Jones with the lead at the start of the final two stages—and track position for the end game over the last 30 laps.

“It’s tough,” Jones said. “But I feel like I can win at other places.”

There’s no doubt about it. Two of Jones’ best tracks are coming up in May—Darlington Raceway and Kansas Speedway. Jones' second NASCAR Cup win came at Darlington in 2019. In eight starts, he has four top-five finishes and six top-10s. His average finish of 10.1 at the Lady in Black is a personal best.

Before moving to RPM last year, Jones posted five-consecutive finishes of seventh or higher at Kansas Speedway. And Jones has a pair of top 10s at the Monster Mile, the site of this weekend’s DuraMAX Drydene 400.

While Sunday’s run was ultimately disappointing, Jones can find solace in the possibilities he has under the new regime at Petty GMS Racing. It’s just a matter of time before the iconic No. 43 returns to Victory Lane.