Saturday, December 16, 2017

2018 Fantasy Nascar Profile: Erik Jones

Welcome to Timerssports

Driver Name: Erik Jones

Car #: 20

Make: Toyota 

Season Debut: 2017 (First-Full Season)

Number of Championships: 0

# of Career Starts: 39

# of Career Poles: 1  

# of Career Wins: 0

# of Career Top 5s: 5 

# of Career Top 10s: 14

# of Career DNFs: 8

# of Career laps led: 310

Career Average Finish: 17.5  

Career Average Start: 14.1

# of 2017 Wins: 0

# of 2017 Top 5s: 5

# of 2017 Top 10s: 14

# of 2017 Poles: 0

# of 2017 DNFs: 8

# of 2017 laps led: 310

2017 Average Finish: 17.5

2017 Average Start: 14.1

2017 Fantasy Recap - Jones had a very good rookie season overall! He posted 5 top 5 finishes and 14 top 10 finishes with 25 Top 20 finishes as well. Those are very hard numbers to complain about. Not quite as good as rookie seasons that Larson or Elliott had, but still heck of a year for him. I think his 310 laps stand out to me. Not because that is pretty for rookie, but I recall multiple races where he up front contending for top 5 finishes. In all honestly, I am sort of disappointed that he didn't have more top 5 finishes or led more laps. Every week it seemed this kid was the edge of breaking out a win. Especially just before the playoffs there. From Michigan to Richmond, as he finished 6th or better in every single race. Why did he go cold after that? I think a lot of that had to do with Martin Truex Jr getting all of the top equipment. I think FRR was giving Jones the best stuff possible just before the playoffs cut-off to improve his chances of winning. Still it was a solid year for Jones, he have nothing to be disappointed in!

Strong Tracks -  Pocono, Bristol and Michigan 

Weak Tracks - Talladega, Kansas and Sonoma  

2018 Fantasy Outlook - Erik Jones will take over the No.20 car in 2018 and replacing former series champion Matt Kenseth! Jones has big shoes to fill, but he is no doubt talented enough to get the job done. Heading into last season's offseason, I had very high hopes for Jones. I thought he could go to victory lane in 2017. And boy oh boy, he was close so many times. But let's be honest, his chances of going to victory lane in 2018 are far better than it was last year. He's in one of the top cars in Nascar and now he has more experience at all of those tracks. Coming to these tracks for the second and third time will help him out a lot. I have no doubt in my mind that Jones will flirt with some wins in 2018. Question is will he hit that 2nd year wall? Who knows, but I am willing to bet that Jones can back up last year's numbers. One of the biggest reasons for that is he is in the No.20 this year. The No.77 team was a bit shaky. It was basically just thrown together. The 20 team is a bit more stable and more reliable. They won't have slow pit stops and they will give him a better shot to win. You can expect him to have his best days on the intermediate tracks. That's the bread and butter of this series right now and Joe Gibbs Racing excel at these tracks, too. The flats in general should be a strong point for him, too. Outside of accidents in 2017, he finished top 8 in every flat track. Road courses and plate tracks in general will likely be the wildcards for him.

*All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18