March 19, 2024

Jones claims NASCAR Truck Series 2015 title

Crafton wins the NCWTS finale

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — Erik Jones is the youngest champion in NASCAR Truck Series history.

The 19-year-old Jones won the title by finishing sixth in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Friday night, giving Sprint Cup driver Kyle Busch his fourth championship as a team owner.

Matt Crafton won the 200-mile race for his sixth victory of the year and 11th in 361 career starts. The 39-year-old Crafton won the last two series championship but was essentially eliminated once Jones and fellow teenager Tyler Reddick started the race.

Crafton, Jones and Reddick were the only drivers still in the running for the championship in Homestead. But Crafton needed lots of help to make it three in a row.

Jones, meanwhile, needed to finish 15th or better in the finale to wrap up the title. He had little trouble getting it done, spending much of the night running in the top 10.

Austin Dillon previously held the record as the youngest series champion, winning the title in 2011 at age 21. Dillon moved up to the NASCAR’s second-tier Xfinity Series the following year.

Jones is expected to run a full season for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series next season. Jones also made three Cup starts this year, filling in for Busch early in the year and subbing for suspended Matt Kenseth the last two weeks.

Busch and Jones first crossed paths in January 2012 at a super late model race in Cordele, Georgia. Jones blew by Busch early in the event, making a strong first impression.

Later that year, at the Snowball Derby in Pensacola, Jones raced door-to-door with Busch and ended up beating the NASCAR star to the finish line.

In 2013, after NASCAR lowered the minimum age requirement for short tracks, Kyle Busch Motorsports signed the then-16-year-old Jones to a five-race deal in the Truck Series. Jones finished in the top 10 in each of his first four starts and then became the youngest winner of a NASCAR national series event at Phoenix International Raceway.

Jones doubled his racing schedule in 2014 and again helped KBM clinch the owner’s championship behind the wheel of the No. 51 Toyota. Busch and Jones responded by vowing to win both the driver’s and owner’s championships this season.

They got it done Friday.

John Hunter Nemechek finished second, a strong showing at the track where his uncle died in 1997. Three months before John Hunter Nemechek was born, John Nemechek died at age 27 from head injuries sustained in a crash at Homestead.

John Hunter Nemechek paid tribute to his late uncle and namesake by racing a No. 8 Chevrolet Silverado — his uncle’s car number — in the season finale.

Reddick was third, followed by Ben Kennedy and Timothy Peters.