Ingram: Spoiler Alert — Rookie Jones most likely to make playoff noise

When I asked fresh-faced Erik Jones during the preseason about the race for the rookie of the year, the tall kid from Michigan immediately looked beyond the question with sharp blue eyes.

“We’re looking at winning races,” he said. The rookie thing, he implied, would take care of itself.

Jones appears to be one part a young Darrell Waltrip in terms of intelligence and confidence and one part a young Jeff Gordon when it comes to mashing the gas in his rookie year.

Like Gordon before him, Jones has crashed often — six times in 24 starts. But he still leads Rookie of the Year contender Daniel Suarez by 37 points.

He hasn’t won yet and the pressure is on if he wants to make the playoffs.

The driver for Furniture Row Racing has finished second and third his last two races. But to advance in the postseason he needs to win at either Darlington on Labor Day weekend or in Richmond, the final race of the regular season.

At Bristol, Jones’ duels versus Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth had some of an estimated 100,000 in attendance cheering on the young phenom — although some of that enthusiasm might have resulted from the disdain for Busch.

After leading 260 laps, Jones was both disappointed as the runner-up to Busch and elated by his team’s progress.

“It’s just unfortunate,” Jones said. “You try hard, you work hard all weekend, feel like you really had a good race car. Just when it comes down to it, you don’t have quite enough. You don’t have a chance to make it that much better. That part hurts.

“But I definitely feel like it’s boosted my own confidence as well as the team’s confidence. I think the team’s really pumped up. We had great pit stops tonight. I don’t think we ever lost a spot. That’s a huge day for us. A lot of positives we can take out of tonight. The only negative is we just ran second.”

Bristol was circled on Jones’ calendar, because he has always liked racing on the high-banked bullring and was confident about what it took to run fast there. But absent the victory after starting on the pole, it now seems more likely that Jones will follow the path of some other recent talented rookies such as Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney and go winless his first season.

Jones has little experience at Darlington and practically none at Richmond in a Monster Energy Cup car.

In the spring, a cut tire from jostling in traffic at the start took him out at lap five. Since he trails in the points, a victory is the only way to make the playoffs at a time when several other talented veterans are in the same boat such as Clint Bowyer and Joey Logano.

Plus, Kenseth and Jamie McMurray are looking to secure their place in the playoffs with a victory instead of relying on points.

“Darlington is going to be tough for us,” Jones said. “Darlington is tough for anybody. I’ve only been there once. It doesn’t really fit how I drive. It doesn’t fit my style of racing. It’s something I’ve been learning. The low-grip tracks, wears out your tires really bad. I haven’t figured out 100 percent in these race cars what you need.

“Darlington will be a challenge, but Richmond will be good. I think we had a fast car there in the spring. We got a cut tire there on lap five or something. We have just need to, you know, have a good race at Richmond. I feel like I’ve learned a lot there the last few times I’ve been there and run a lot better.”

Like Gordon before him or Kyle Larson, Elliott and Blaney, I would bet Jones does not get a victory this season.

It would take a freak event to win at Darlington such as a rain-shortened race and it would be a minor miracle for Jones to come through at Richmond with so much on the line for so many drivers.

Once the playoffs start, the Top 16 will be all elbows and slide jobs, leaving little room for a non-playoff driver to break though.

But I would bet on the 21-year-old Jones becoming the first among the cadre of drivers under 25 to win a title before any of his peers.

He’s that good and Bristol confirmed it. He lost only because his Furniture Row team lead by Crew Chief Chris Gayle did not have quite enough experience to keep adjusting on the chassis as the 500-lap race wore on. As the race leader, they played it safe by not adjusting on Jones’ last stop.

But he didn’t have issues with endurance, restarts or going fender-to-fender with Kenseth and Busch, both previous champions.

Jones, of course, will replace Kenseth next year at Joe Gibbs Racing, which this year is looking for a fifth championship. Once in place alongside Busch and Denny Hamlin, Jones is a lock to start winning races. When it comes to titles, he has the right checkers or wreckers’ attitude needed during the stage racing era.

Short term, Jones has the solace from coming close at Bristol and the lesson learned about figuring out how to lose before realizing what it takes to win a Cup race.

“We lost this one,” he said afterward.

A quick rebound from disappointment is a hallmark of winners and Jones didn’t stay down on himself for long. Win or lose, the racing at Bristol was the sort of intensity he enjoys.

“Yeah, I mean, it takes you back to, you know, late model racing really more than anything,” Jones said. “You’re just on the gas. You’re not saving tires. You’re just hammer down and getting everything you can, which is a lot of fun. It’s hard on you as a driver, it wears you out, but you definitely have a lot of fun.

“If I had to rank it, this is probably the most fun I’ve had in a Cup race, for sure.”

The fun is just beginning for Jones and what is now a growing fan base.