Race Weekend Central

Erik Jones Wires It to Win First Heat Race at Bristol

Making the most of a brand-new format Saturday Erik Jones dominated in the first of two heat races running the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Jones put the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Game Stop Toyota on the pole for the race with his No. 1 qualifying spot.  Sprint Cup regulars Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch gave chase, but wound up racing each other for second place as Jones stretched his lead out in the final laps. Justin Allgaier and Brandon Jones also secured top-5 finishes. Brendan Gaughan, Darrell Wallace, Jr., Elliott Sadler, Ryan Reed and Brennan Poole rounded out the top 10.

“It was nice to end up where we qualified, up front,” Jones said afterward, adding that the challenge would be to hold point in the 200-lap main event scheduled to begin just before 2:00 PM ET.

The top two XFINITY Series regulars in the finishing order, Erik Jones and Allgaier, earned the chance to compete in the Dash 4 Cash in the main feature, where the top finisher of the four drivers who qualify will win a $100,000 bonus.  In addition, two Dash 4 Cash bonus wins will qualify a driver for the series Chase, regardless of whether or not they reach victory lane in the actual event.

Teams were allowed to change tires after the race, but could not otherwise work on their cars during the second heat.

Bristol Motor Speedway Heat Race 1 Results

About the author

Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.

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