INDIANAPOLIS — It didn’t take Erik Jones long to rebound from his bitter defeat on Tuesday at the Slinger Nationals as he returned to a Super Late Model just three days later and emerged victorious in the CRA Super Series Circle City 100 at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indiana.
Jones held off a hard charging Brian Campbell over the final 15 laps and won for the first time at the track formerly called Indianapolis Raceway Park. In fact, Jones wasn’t even sure he was going to run this race until Thursday.
“It was a tough decision to even get back here to be honest,” Jones told Short Track Scene after the race. “The car was fairly tore up. It took Mike Bursley and Zach Dunson close to 20 hours to get the thing back together. It was just holding together at the end. We had some some braces coming out. What a great race car. I shook it down for 10 laps and said I didn’t think we should race. Mike worked on it and got it down today, got it fast and got it close.
“I’m really happy to get a result after Slinger. We were bummed for that but happy to get in Victory Lane.”
Jones started the race from ninth alongside fast qualifier and defending winner John Hunter Nemecheck. Both quickly cut their way through the field and Nemechek was leading by Lap 32 with Jones just outside of the top-5. Jones took the lead for the first time on a Lap 50 and never looked back. Despite losing the lead, Nemechek never lost sight of the leader until losing the charge in his batter on Lap 67.
It forced him to pit road and behind the wall.
With Nemechek eliminated, the battle came down to Jones and Campbell, who stayed nose to tail for much of the final 15 circuits. Jones slowly pulled away over the final five laps, leaving Campbell to be satisfied with a runner-up.
“He had traction and we didn’t, it’s as simple as that,” Campbell said. “I could get in better but he had much better drive off. So we’ll take it back. Look at it and just see how we can make it better.”
Friday night was Jones third Super Late race of the season with his schedule full with NASCAR commitments. His next one will be the SLM portion of the Kalamazoo Clash but he wouldn’t entirely count out other races, including the Snowball Derby.
The complete finishing results can be viewed below.
- Erik Jones
- Brian Campbell
- Raphael Lessard
- Todd Gilliland
- Grant Quinlan
- Stephen Wallace
- Cody Coughlin
- Wes Griffith Jr
- William Byron
- Tanner Thorson
- Dalton Armstrong
- Tyler Ankrum
- Chris Koslek
- Rick Turner
- Travis Braden
- Riley Herbst
- David Garbo
- Hunter Jack
- Johnny VanDoorn
- Thomas Woodin
- Cole Timm
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Tristan VanWieringen
- Quin Houff
- Jeff Cannon
