LAS VEGAS (AP) — Erik Jones raced to his second NASCAR Camping World Truck victory of the year Saturday night, holding off Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate Darrell Wallace Jr. at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The 18-year-old Jones gave Kyle Busch Motorsports its 10th victory in 17 races this year. Busch has six victories and Wallace has won twice. Jones has three victories in 14 career starts in the series, also winning last year at Phoenix and in July in Iowa.
Jones led the final 14 laps on the 1.5-mile oval after taking the lead from Wallace.
“It was a blast,” Jones said. “I learned a ton. To get a win on a mile-and-a-half (track), that’s awesome. It drove so good at the end. I couldn’t ask for any more than this. I wanted to win out here so bad. I had this marked down as one I was looking forward to. This is really surreal for me right now.”
Jones credited crew chief Eric Phillips for making the right adjustments on the final stop.
“It was perfect,” Jones said. “We were way, way too loose in traffic before it. … It was a perfect adjustment. We made a big swing at it, it just worked out.”
Wallace has five runner-up finishes this season.
“Just got beat, flat out,” Wallace said. “Congrats to the 51. Hate that it’s not the 54. We need a win. (It’s) frustrating, I hate finishing second so bad. Thanks to my guys though. I thought it was ours. Another KBM dominance for sure. We’ll go onto Talladega and try to finish one spot better.”
Points leader Matt Crafton was third, followed by Timothy Peters, Brian Ickler, Ryan Blaney, Ben Kennedy, Jeb Burton, Tayler Malsam and Joey Coulter.
Crafton has a 19-point lead over ThorSport teammate Johnny Sauter. Sauter was 14th.
Ron Hornaday Jr. finished 20th in his return to the series under a two-race deal with sponsor Rheem, NTS Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing. The 56-year-old Hornaday, the series record-holder with four season titles and 51 victories, missed three races after Turner Scott Motorsports shut down the No. 30 team.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
