Ed Jones has been quietly on fire in the last two Verizon IndyCar Series races and looks to contend in the upcoming Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama presented by America’s First at Barber Motorsports Park.
After a late-race crash from second place at ISM Raceway during the Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix Grand Prix on April 7, Jones rebounded Sunday by driving his No. 10 NTT DATA Honda to a third place in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. The Chip Ganassi Racing newcomer sits ninth in the standings after three of 17 races, but is just 15 points out of the top five.
Last season’s Sunoco Rookie of the Year when he ran for Dale Coyne Racing, Jones has overcome mediocre qualifying efforts this season by executing excellent race strategy to move through the field. That was never more evident than at Long Beach, where the podium finish equaled his career best set at last year’s Indianapolis 500 and came at the track where he scored his third Indy Lights win in as many starts during his 2016 championship season in the top level of the Mazda Road to Indy.
By running a three-stop strategy, Jones had no concerns with saving fuel and charged the entire 85 laps. Before making his second pit stop on Lap 36, the Dubai-born Brit moved into seventh place. After exiting the pits in 12th, Jones climbed to eighth before pitting for the final time on Lap 56, dropping to 11th.
The final stop timed perfectly with a full-course caution four laps later. With many front runners pitting under the yellow, Jones moved up to fourth. He slid into third place when teammate Scott Dixon served a drive-through penalty on Lap 68 for taking service in a closed pit. Jones held off Zach Veach and Graham Rahal over the final 17 laps to secure the podium finish.
“The team did an awesome job with the strategy and pit stops were a bit lucky with the yellows, so it was very fortunate for the result,” said Jones. “I think this gives me and the team a lot of confidence heading into Barber next week and I can't wait to get started there and see what the weekend holds.”
After spending his 2017 rookie season learning the ins and outs of the Verizon IndyCar Series, Jones is happy with how he’s performed with Chip Ganassi Racing thus far. He knows that the highs of a podium finish one week and lows of crashing out while running second the week before are part of racing.
“It’s really hard when it’s like that and I’m really thankful,” he said. “The team 100 percent believe in me, it makes me more confident as a driver and that they’re doing everything that they can to make me succeed. When you have that relationship with the team, you’re just looking for it every weekend to see what you can do.”
Redemption was on Jones’s mind the 20th-place finish the week before.
“You work your butt off the whole time to get a good result,” Jones said. “I felt like I didn’t really make any mistakes, I felt like I didn’t do anything different and something caught me out, which was really unexpected.”
Jones said he has managed to figure out what it takes to go quicker in the new universal aero kit – which could lead to more top finishes.
“In the old aero kit, what you wanted from the car was to make yourself comfortable and then you were fast,” said Jones. “With this car, there’s one way to be fast and it’s not comfortable or my natural way. Now I know that, that’s the only way to do it and I’ve just got to adapt to that and make that work in Barber.
“You’re always on the ragged edge, but it’s a different approach of doing it and it’s just finding a happy balance for myself. I’ve been working hard with the guys and I’m sure we’ll find that.”
Verizon IndyCar Series action at Barber Motorsports Park begins with a pair of practice sessions Friday, starting at noon and 3:50 p.m. ET. A third practice begins at 11:50 a.m. Saturday. All practices stream live on RaceControl.IndyCar.com.
Verizon P1 Award qualifying airs live at 4 p.m. Saturday on NBCSN. Race coverage commences at 3 p.m. Sunday on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network.