By Jared Turner Before and since July’s announcement that Erik Jones will join Joe Gibbs Racing’s four-car Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series fleet in 2017, the 21-year-old youngster from Byron, Michigan has impressed his future boss — three-time Super Bowl-winning coach Joe Gibbs. Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway was undoubtedly not one of Jones’ more impressive outings, however. Running in the middle of a big pack of cars, Jones triggered a massive wreck on Lap 198 when he lost control of his No. 77 Furniture Row Racing Toyota. Collected in the melee were none other than two Joe Gibbs Racing cars, including…

By Jared Turner Martin Truex Jr. continued his magical 2017 by completing the Kansas Speedway season sweep and winning for the seventh time and third time in six playoff races. Thanks to all the playoff points he’s amassed, Truex enters the Round of 8 with a significant points cushion over his fellow championship contenders — making him all but assured of reaching the Championship 4. If there’s any reason to doubt Truex’s championship credentials, it’s the fact that the season-ending winner-take-all race is at Homestead-Miami Speedway — a mile-and-a-half track where he’s finished no better than 12th in three starts with his…

By Jared Turner Widely considered an overwhelming favorite to make it all the way to the Championship 4, Kyle Larson was disheartened and understandably deflated at Kansas where he finished as the first driver on the wrong side of the cutoff line for advancing to the Round of 8. In position to easily make it into the next round, Larson missed out on the opportunity with a Lap 77 engine failure that resulted in a DNF and left him scored with a 39th-place finish. He ended the day ninth in the standings, nine points behind Jimmie Johnson — last among the eight…

By Jared Turner On the verge of narrowly slipping into the Round of 8, Matt Kenseth saw his hopes of advancing go out the window in abrupt fashion at Kansas when he was disqualified from the race and forced to park for having too many men over the pit wall working on his car following his involvement in a multi-car wreck on Lap 198. By having seven men over the pit wall instead of six, Kenseth violated NASCAR’s damaged vehicle policy — resulting in automatic dismissal from the race. Kenseth, the 2003 series champion and an 18-year veteran of NASCAR’s top series,…

By Jared Turner Jimmie Johnson arrived at Kansas just barely on the right side of the cutoff line for advancing to the next round of the playoffs. He also left on the right side of it — barely. After avoiding major damage in two separate solo spins that put his championship hopes in serious jeopardy, Johnson avoided a late multi-car crash that swallowed up some of his playoff rivals. Johnson then rallied to finish 11th — not great but good enough to advance to the Round of 8. And with that, Johnson’s drive for a record-breaking eighth series championship remains alive. “The…