Erik Jones and Furniture Row Racing’s No. 77 5-hour ENERGY Toyota team look to add to his already impressive track record at Phoenix International Raceway in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Camping World 500.
The Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate has earned three victories and three pole positions, as well as five top-five and eight top-10 finishes in just nine starts at the flat one-mile oval east of Phoenix. The statistics from eight of those races were achieved in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, where he won the spring race last season, and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series where he earned his first NASCAR victory in 2013 and then repeated the next year.
The ninth race took place in the Cup series (Nov. 15, 2015), when Jones subbed for Matt Kenseth in the No. 20 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. His strong seventh-place qualifying effort was followed by a very respectable 19th-place race finish despite it being just his third NASCAR Cup Series start.
Three races into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and Ryan Blaney rolls into Phoenix International Raceway in sixth place overall, seemingly on the cusp of victory.
Blaney was an ounce or so of American Ethanol shy of victory at Daytona last month and finished second. He was strong again, but snake-bitten, at Atlanta winding up in 18th. Then he spent all of last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the top 10, including the seventh-place finish.
Phoenix, the second leg of NASCAR’s three-race West Coast Swing, is a track that suits Blaney’s driving style. In his first two visits to PIR as a rookie last season, Blaney finished 10thin the spring and eighth in the fall.
Add those impressive results to his three consecutive Phoenix top 10s (2012-2014) in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and he’s never finished a race there outside of the top 10.
Race details
Race Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
TV: FOX, 3:30 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 312 miles (312 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 75),
Stage 2 (Ends on lap 150), Final Stage (Ends on lap 312)
A vehicle’s tech features are just as important these days are its engine’s performance, design and the comfort level of the driver. Technology has taken over every aspect of our lives, including inside the car, so there’s no surprise automakers want to do it right to keep customers interested.
Today I’m going to be focusing on one particular system and let you know how it compares to the rest of the automotive world in terms of tech … specifically, I’m talking about Kia’s UVO eServices telematics system, which I recently put to the test in a 2017 Kia Sportage.
While Kia isn’t the first name you think of when it comes to in-car tech, I was pleasantly surprised with how far they’ve come over the years, and how well the system performed overall.
If there’s one major talking point to come out of this wreck-filled Daytona weekend, it’s all about the race stages … and what people think of them.
As is often the case, anything new is instantly dismissed by a large group of NASCAR fans. Let’s go back to the 1972 rules, many of the don’t-change brigade will say.
AutoTechReviews is your home for In-depth reviews of the latest cars, trucks, and SUVs; information on all the emerging vehicle technology; and breaking news from the world of NASCAR and other motorsports.