NASCAR’s inaugural In-Season Challenge is ready to set sail on the third of five races. It will happen with the running of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Sonoma Raceway.
Twenty-four drivers have already been eliminated over the past two weekends from the In-Season Challenge bracket. That leaves only eight of 32 original participants in the hunt to win the Challenge. The same is true for its $1 million winner’s prize.
Two of those remaining participants are Legacy Motor Club teammates Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek. And it just so happens that Jones and Nemechek are paired against each in the bracket at Sonoma.
This means that whoever between the two finishes best on Sunday at the Northern California road course will advance to In-Season Challenge Round No. 4, which will take place at Dover next weekend. Whichever of the Jimmie Johnson-owned cars finishes worse at Sonoma will be eliminated. In other words, the loser won’t be one of the four drivers to qualify for the next round.
So, how are the Legacy Motor Club teammates approaching their potentially awkward head-to-head matchup at Sonoma? One of them addressed this question on Saturday.
Erik Jones Shrugs Off Suggestion He’s Taking Different Approach Due To In-Season Challenge
If Erik Jones has a particular strategy for taking down teammate John Hunter Nemechek on Sunday in California’s Wine Country, he’s keeping his cards extra close to his chest.
To hear Jones tell it, quite literally nothing changed with how his No. 43 team prepared for this weekend versus any other race.
“I would love to give you some big play on it. But it has been business as usual,” Jones said on Saturday at Sonoma. “For me, I’m always pretty good about letting the result be what it is. I never go into a race thinking about how I want to run or how I want to finish.
“I run the best race I can run and then hope the result is going to come with that.”
To advance to the next round of the In-Season Challenge, Jones will need to make up some major ground at Sonoma. He rolls off from the 31st position. Nemechek will start 18th.
Jones’ plan, at least for now, is to race his Legacy Motor Club teammate super-clean if they end up anywhere near each other on the track. He admits, however, that this plan is subject to change.
“Obviously, is there a last lap and he’s one car in front of me and we are going into Turn 11, yeah, it might be different,” Jones said.
Does Erik Jones Want To Be Updated During The Race About Teammate’s Whereabouts?
Even though John Hunter Nemechek’s finishing position at Sonoma will likely have a large impact on whether Erik Jones advances to the next round of the In-Season Challenge, Jones is not too interested in being clued in to where Nemechek is running during the race.
But what about the final stage? At that point, will Jones want his team to provide an update on Nemechek’s status?
“No, probably not,” Jones said with a laugh on Saturday at Sonoma.
Jones then revealed that he wasn’t privy to where Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was running during last weekend’s Chicago Street Race. The two were pitted against each other in the bracket.
“I didn’t think or know where Ricky was all day,” Jones said. “… We crossed the finish line, and it wasn’t a very good day. And the first thing Ben (Beshore, crew chief) says is, ‘Well, we beat the 47 (Stenhouse).’
“I was like, ‘OK, that is cool.’”
Of course, if Jones is within striking distance of his teammate near the end of Sunday’s race, he may not be able to control what he knows about Nemechek’s whereabouts.
“If we are two or three (cars) back from him, coming down to it, I may say something,” Jones’ spotter, Will Rodgers, said with a laugh.
