Jones wins Phoenix truck race, Crafton adds to points lead

Avondale, AZ (SportsNetwork.com) - Erik Jones put on a dominating performance but benefited from a power outage with 24 laps remaining to win Friday's Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix International Raceway.

The start of the 150-lap truck race at this 1-mile oval was delayed more than an hour due to an outage at the track and the surrounding areas. The track's lights went out. The lighting system was knocked out again on lap 126, forcing the seventh and final caution. NASCAR officials called the race shortly after.

Jones, who is driving the No. 51 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports in a partial schedule this season, started on the pole and led 114 of 126 laps. His KBM teammate, Darrell Wallace Jr., led the other 12 laps, which occurred during a round of green-flag pit stops in the late going.

The 18-year-old Jones scored his third win in his 12th truck start this season. One year ago, he became the youngest driver to win a NASCAR national touring series race by taking the checkered flag for the truck event at Phoenix, doing so at age 17 years, 5 months and 9 days.

"It's pretty cool to pick up another win here at Phoenix, and it's definitely a great way to top off the year for me in this truck," Jones said. "I wish we could have raced 24 more laps. I felt like we definitely had a dominant truck, and we could have brought it home."

In September, 16-year-old Cole Custer surpassed Jones' record when he won the truck race at New Hampshire.

Jones also gave KBM its record 13th victory in the Truck Series this season. Kyle Busch has won seven races in the No. 51, while Jones and Wallace have three victories each. Wallace is in his second full season driving the No. 54 for the team.

"It's awesome to break the truck record, 13 wins in a season," Jones said. "Cool to be the one who got to do that."

On Thursday, KBM and Joe Gibbs Racing jointly announced that Jones will compete full time for KBM in the Truck Series and run a partial schedule for JGR in the Xfinity (now known as Nationwide) Series.

Ryan "Rudy" Fugle will serve as Jones' crew chief in trucks next year, but his entry number and team sponsor in that series have yet to be decided.

Matt Crafton's second-place finish coupled with a fourth-place run for Ryan Blaney allowed Crafton to widen his points lead to 25 over Blaney. The series will conclude its season next Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

"It's a damn shame that the lights went out," Crafton said. "I guarantee it was going to be exciting on the next restart."

Blaney was one of many drivers who was disappointed that NASCAR called the race short of its scheduled distance.

"I would have liked to race the last (24) laps," Blaney said. "I'm not sure why we called it. We were going to restart in a pretty good lane. I thought we could have at least got to second. We were that good. So I don't know why we called it."

All Crafton needs to do is finish 21st or better at Homestead, and he will become the first driver in the 20-year history of the series to win consecutive championships.

Custer finished third, while Ben Rhodes placed fifth.

Wallace, John H. Nemechek, Austin Dillon, the only Sprint Cup Series regular who competed in this race, Johnny Sauter and Tyler Reddick completed the top-10.

In addition to the power outages, this race featured numerous wrecks, including a four-truck incident on the opening lap. After the green flag had waved, John Wes Townley, German Quiroga and Justin Jennings piled up. Track cleanup was extensive, forcing 17 laps of caution.

Then on lap 27, Timothy Peters, Jeb Burton and Spencer Gallagher were involved in an accident in turn 3.