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Joe Gibbs Racing driver Erik Jones was made available to media via teleconference prior to NASCAR\u2019s return to the track at Darlington Raceway on Sunday:<\/p>\n
ERIK JONES,\u00a0<\/strong>No. 20 DeWalt Atomic Thank You Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing<\/p>\n What have you done to keep physically in shape to prepare for the upcoming races?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n “That\u2019s been one of the hardest parts. In general, we all try to keep ourselves in good shape, but at the same time a lot of our workout just comes from being in the car. There\u2019s so many muscles you can\u2019t really work out that you use in the race car in the seated position that we\u2019re in, and what muscles we\u2019re using during the race. So, it\u2019s tough. A lot of it, I hope, has been just from working around the house. I\u2019ve been really busy here. I moved right before Atlanta and I\u2019ve been working like crazy outside pretty much every day. Been hoping that\u2019s going to keep me in shape and been doing a normal workout as well with that. Really, at the end of the day you\u2019ve got to get back into the race car and get back into racing shape as well. As much as you\u2019re in shape out of it, there\u2019s still I believe kind of a racing shape that you have to be in as well.”<\/p>\n What\u2019s your interaction been like with your crew chief Chris Gayle over the break?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n “A lot over the phone. I haven\u2019t seen Chris (Gayle, crew chief) since Atlanta which is really odd. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve ever gone that long not seeing Chris in the last four years. It\u2019s a different normal. Obviously, the communication has been ramped up the last few weeks with them getting back to work at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and getting obviously ready for Darlington this weekend. I\u2019ve definitely talked a lot with him this week and last week just trying to get prepared, determine what the plan is and what the protocols are. Things we have to go through that are going to be different this weekend than what a normal weekend would bring for us. I\u2019ve been talking to him a ton. Not only Chris, but my engineers as well. I was in the Toyota simulator on Monday just trying to get a feel for the car again. Working on what we\u2019re going to unload with and race with. Trying to work with them as much as I can to do the things that we can to help through the weekend. It\u2019s definitely a different communication than what\u2019s normal, but I have been talking to them quite a bit.”<\/p>\n How much pressure will it be not to screw up during the first stage of Sunday\u2019s race?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n “I think that pressure if there every weekend that we\u2019re racing, whether it\u2019s this weekend at Darlington where we have a unique situation. We haven\u2019t raced in two months and we don\u2019t have any practice or qualifying, but at the same time all 40 of us are some of the best drivers in the world. We wouldn\u2019t be in the Cup Series if we weren\u2019t capable of being there. Obviously, you\u2019re going to be a little bit rusty when you hop back in and I think in your mind you use caution. You can\u2019t barrel off into Turn 1 wide open on the first lap after being on a dry run basically. The caution is going to be there, and guys are going to be trying to settle in and find their groove. Darlington is not an easy race track and especially when it\u2019s green. It\u2019s dusty and dirty and sandy around that area. The track is going to take a long time to get cleaned up, so I think everybody is just going to kind of take it easy until that first competition yellow and ride and figure out what their car has got and go from there. And, we know that we\u2019re on a big stage this weekend, right? There\u2019s not really any other sports out there. I know UFC is back, but we have a huge opportunity on Sunday to bring a new group of fans in and people that maybe have never watched NASCAR to tune in this weekend and give them the opinion to put on a good show and hopefully they say \u2018Hey, this is pretty neat. I think I could watch this again.\u2019 That\u2019s all on our mind. The pressure is there to keep it clean and put on a good show for them.”<\/p>\n Can you describe the challenges of returning to the track Sunday and how do you work your way through all of that?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n “It is tough. There\u2019s a lot of things other than just racing like you mentioned during Sunday. You have to have green flag pit stops and getting in and out of pit box. All of those things. And, there\u2019s little nuances that as the year goes on that you naturally do, and a lot of things you probably don\u2019t think about if you\u2019ve been out of the car this long. How the cars drive in traffic, how you navigate certain traffic situations, how to keep yourself out of bad spots. There\u2019s a bunch of little things that you don\u2019t always think about when you\u2019ve been out of the car this long. You have to watch a lot of film and really try to just remember those things and what you did during that time to be competitive, but also not put yourself in bad spots. It\u2019s not easy. I think it\u2019s kind of like riding a bike for a lot of us, as we get going, things will start to click for everybody, and you\u2019ll remember things you should do or shouldn\u2019t do I guess more than that. So, I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s unique. None of us have been out of a car for probably this long since we started racing \u2014 however long ago that was for anybody so it\u2019s going to be a pretty unique situation.”<\/p>\n Do you have a sense for what the lead up to the race will be like compared to a normal race day morning?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n “It\u2019s going to be different. I mean, that\u2019s the easiest way to put it. We normally have such a routine, right? Every driver is a little bit different. You normally wake up, do your appearances and then come back to the drivers meeting, eat lunch, get 20 or 30 minutes to kind of relax by yourself and think about the day and what you\u2019re going to have to do and then intros and go race. What we\u2019ve got now, it\u2019s going to be you all by yourself at the track, which is going to be unique in itself. I don\u2019t know that I\u2019ve ever just went to the race track by myself to race without either family, friends or even motorhome drivers. They\u2019re normally there if nobody else is there. That\u2019s going to be really unique just walking out to the grid and hopping in the car. There\u2019s not going to be anybody by the car other than us and maybe the interior guy to help us get the window net up. So, yeah, it\u2019s going to be odd and it\u2019s going to be unprecedented in what we\u2019ve always done. It\u2019s a weird feeling. A new normal for right now and what we\u2019re normally used to. But, hey, as long as we\u2019re getting to race, I think most of us can manage to find a new normal for a little while.”<\/p>\n How confident are you that NASCAR can pull this off without anybody getting the virus and are you confident in the procedures if someone does get it?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n “I feel good about it right now. Obviously, we haven\u2019t done it yet, right? We haven\u2019t been to the track yet to see what the protocols are like. I know NASCAR has worked \u2013 not to sound like a PR guy for NASCAR but \u2013 day in and day out the last couple of months trying to just get us back to the race track. Trying to rework on the schedule and trying to work with dates and what they\u2019ve got opened up to get us to the race track on these dates. From my opinion, we\u2019re doing everything we can. I don\u2019t know what else we can possibly do to be any safer with what\u2019s going on right now than what we are. As far as if somebody does get sick, probably above my paygrade, but I think they\u2019ve got a plan in place for that. We wouldn\u2019t go back racing if we didn\u2019t have a plan in place for a situation if somebody did test positive and had been in contact with ours. I feel confident if that did happen, they\u2019ve got something that could keep us racing. I don\u2019t think that would shut us down by any stretch right now. It\u2019s a day by day thing though. It\u2019s very fluid. It changes by the day. We get different updates each day as things progress and move forward and how things are working and going. I know we\u2019re all hoping for the best and hoping that we all stay safe and follow the protocols and nothing will go wrong. We\u2019ll kind of have to see how it goes.”<\/p>\n How confident are you in how your pit crew can work together after having such a long break?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n “I feel good. They\u2019ve been able to get back in the shop and practice a little bit. It\u2019s been very staggered with what we\u2019ve got to do with following the social distancing polices that we\u2019ve got in place at JGR. So, it\u2019s been real staggered pit practice and it\u2019s not really what they do to practice normally. Will it be rusty? Yeah. Every year when we go to Daytona the first race of the year, we\u2019re always a little rusty, the pit crews are. And, it\u2019s not just them, it\u2019s us and the crew chiefs and everybody is a little rusty. These last two months have obviously been a little longer than our normal offseason, but they have got back to practice a little bit. I mean, I feel confident. Will there be slow stops and maybe some issues here and there? Yeah, but I think that will be everybody. But, I have confidence in my guys. The good thing is there\u2019s a lot of pit stops at Darlington, so they\u2019ve got several opportunities to go in and get it right and have a lot of practice. They\u2019ll be rusty at first, but I feel like they\u2019re going to get the hang of things here and get in the swing of things pretty quickly.”<\/p>\n How much will it matter to you during the race to not have fans in the grandstands?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n “You don\u2019t notice it really too much during the race. With us being in the race cars, obviously it\u2019s really loud and you\u2019re pretty tunnel vision as far as what you\u2019re doing on the race track \u2014 what\u2019s in front of you and what\u2019s behind you. You won\u2019t notice it then. At times you\u2019ll really only notice it in pre and post-race, getting in the race car and not having any fans. Especially for the winner having your celebration. Obviously, a big part of winning the race is celebrating not only with your team but with the fans as well, so getting out and doing the interview that we\u2019re going to do on the front stretch after the win will definitely be unique. If you\u2019re doing a burn out, it will be unique as well. During the race you don\u2019t notice it a whole lot but pre and post is when things will definitely be a lot different than what we\u2019re used to.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joe Gibbs Racing driver Erik Jones was made available to media via teleconference prior to NASCAR\u2019s return to the track at Darlington Raceway on Sunday: ERIK JONES,\u00a0No. 20 DeWalt Atomic Thank You Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing What have you done to keep physically in shape to prepare for the upcoming races? “That\u2019s been one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[788],"tags":[180,735,319],"coauthors":[675],"class_list":{"0":"post-23832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-darlington-raceway","9":"tag-erik-jones","10":"tag-joe-gibbs-racing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23832"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=23832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}