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Buckshot Jones To Compete In Winston 500 At Talladega Superspeedway SPARTANBURG, S.C. ---- After scaling back his NASCAR Winston Cup schedule, Buckshot Jones is looking forward to getting back behind the wheel of a Winston Cup car in the Winston ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

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Buckshot Jones To Compete In Winston 500 At Talladega Superspeedway

SPARTANBURG, S.C. ---- After scaling back his NASCAR Winston Cup schedule, Buckshot Jones is looking forward to getting back behind the wheel of a Winston Cup car in the Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Jones will be competing in the No. 30 Jimmy Dean Pontiac Grand Prix. "Back in June, my team and I decided to cut back on our Winston Cup schedule because we wanted to be competitive every week and we just didn't have the information about these cars to do that," said Buckshot Jones. "We wanted to finish out the season running at tracks that we tested or tracks where we were competitive. For the last two months I've been competing in our Busch car full-time again, but there are some tracks that the Winston Cup series is returning to that I did well at during the first half of the season, and Talladega is one of them. I qualified 26th and finished 21st in the spring race and I'm hoping to better those numbers this time around." Jones has experience on superspeedways, but he is always looking to gain more. "I still don't have a lot of superspeedway experience, but I've competed at Talladega a handful of times in our Busch car and twice in a Winston Cup car," said Jones. "I drove a Cup car here for the first time last year in the Winston 500 for Stavola Brothers Racing, qualifying 11th and finishing the day 16th. "I think the biggest reason I want to run this race is the drafting experience. We only get to run Talladega and Daytona in the Busch Series once a year, so really understanding the draft is still new to me. Take someone like Dale Earnhardt, who can see the air on the cars and who can really interpret it and make a pass. That's when you really understand how to drive on these tracks." Earning the respect of his fellow drivers as a rookie is another reason Jones wants to compete in the upcoming Winston 500. "Coming to these superspeedways with a yellow stripe on your car doesn't improve your chances of getting any drafting help on the track," commented the 29-year old rookie. "You need to have a few friends when driving in these races, but these veteran drivers who have been racing on these tracks for years want to be sure that you know how to handle your car in the draft. I've competed at Daytona and Talladega in a Winston Cup car, so I hope I have earned some respect with these guys and will have a few partners out there I can rely on during the race." Jones knows that you cannot put a price on experience. Look for this Winston Cup driver to be cashing in on as much as he can in his rookie season.

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