“Last Year I Let People Go” – Tony Stewart Mentee Responds to Heating Feud After Erik Jones Tips Over at Phoenix

Qualifying for the fourth Cup Series race, the Shriners Children’s 500 in P4 was Legacy Motor Club driver, Erik Jones. Jones ran near the front of the field for the majority of Sunday’s event at Phoenix Raceway. The driver had high hopes for the 312 lapper, hoping to bag a good finish, but what he was left with was a disappointing 31st place finish. Following the race, he was seen fuming, calling out Tony Stewart‘s mentee as Jones alleged that the #14 driver had something against him and this bad blood has spilled on the track more often now.

However, Chase Briscoe denied all allegations, clearing the air and sharing his thoughts on the stint, ultimately sending out a warning to the entire field.

Chase Briscoe gets real about what happened with Erik Jones at Phoenix

Things were going pretty well for Erik Jones, who had his sights set on a top-10 finish, placing himself solidly in the eighth position with 92 laps to go after the final restart. But little did the driver know, things were about to go for a toss when the field fanned out to go three, four wide. The LMC driver found himself at the wrong end of the spectrum between Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace.

The gap became narrower and narrower as the trio raced into turns 1 and 2. During the same, the #14 Ford of Briscoe slid up and made contact with Wallace’s Toyota, pushing him straight into Jones. Unable to control the car, the #43 Toyota rammed into the outer barrier, thus losing all the momentum he had built on in a flash.

Following the tangle, Jones reported that something was bent on the chassis and for the rest of the day the driver tried to salvage what he could with his damaged racecar. Frustrated with such a disappointing turnaround, Jones called out Briscoe, who had no idea what went wrong. When asked about the incident, the SHR driver said, “I don’t know what I did, I know we were four wide at one point and I got super tight and got into him I think but I don’t know if that’s the part he’s made about or what if he calls me, I’ll gladly answer.” 

Furthermore, reflecting on his dismal 2023 season, Briscoe then dropped a cold warning to the field, revealing his current mindset. “I feel like we definitely always race around each other and yeah, I mean, I’m racing hard, I’m trying to what’s best for my guys, last year I kind of let people go and this year I’m not doing that. The guys that run up front are the guys are the guy that are the most aggressive and I’m going back to those ways so I dont know what part he is mad about, I know that were four wide at one point over there and it got really tight and he got wrecked the next lap by the guy right behind me so, yeah, I’ll have to go back and watch it,” said the #14 driver stating what he thought transpired on Sunday. 

After such a fallout, Jones was not happy with Briscoe after the race, discussing how the latter “seems to have an issue.”

Jones fires away shots, calling out Briscoe for allegedly ruining his day

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A steep fall from a possible top 10 finish to an awful bottom 31st place finish, down by seven laps, wasn’t what the driver had in his mind going into the race and the driver was obviously frustrated with it. Speaking to Fronstretch’s Bryan Nolen, he shared his thoughts about the incident after the restart, that made him bitter.

Taking aim at the Hoosier, he fired away shots, saying, “#14 was dragging us down over and over restart after restart, and he put us four wide because he’s slowing us down so much and I got wrecked so that sucks but he seems to have an issue with me every week so I’ll call him this week he probably won’t call me back and love to talk to him.”

With such a dramatic fallout to the race, is this the start of a new rivalry? Well, for that we’ll have to wait till next week to get to Bristol.

READ MORE: Joey Logano’s Phoenix Dreams “Killed” by John Hunter Nemechek As Multi-Car Wreck Consumes Corey LaJoie