PJ had a great opportunity to drive the Burger King 00 Toyota for Michael Waltrip racing at the Glen on Sunday. He rose as high as the low teens, but then got punted in to the “Kitty Litter” outside the Inner Loop by Chase Contender Kurt Busch, who was “on a mission” himself.

This is the second week in a row racing in the NEXTEL cup for PJ, as he filled in for Robby Gordon last week at Pocono for the Pennsylvania 500. Gordon was suspended for one race for his actions at the Montreal Busch series race.

PJ said this in an interview at the track:
How was your race today?
“The race was going along pretty good. We were on a pretty different strategy than a lot of the teams, which put us near the front for a few of the restarts. It was good to get up there and battle for the lead. The guys did just an awesome job and gave me such a good car. I’m just disappointed with how we ended up. We had a top-15 car today, and I was hoping that we could’ve finished up there, but that’s how racing is. Those things sometimes happen.”

What happened that put you off-track late in the race?
“I just got ran into from behind. We were running along in the top-20 or so, and we were trying to make some moves on the guys in front of us, but we got tagged from behind and sent off the track. That’s definitely not how I wanted to end the race, but I am just thankful for the opportunity to run here. I can’t thank Michael (Waltrip, team owner) enough for the chance to drive this car.”

After an early incident, PJ returned the #43 Diversified Partners / Curb-Agajanian Busch car to the track at O’Reilly’s Indy Raceway Park to finish 39th, 62 laps down.

Update: 7 August 2006. From PJ Jones: “At IRP we got hit in the left front, after we swerved to missed the crash and it punctured an oil line, which took 30+ laps to fix. Did the best we could under the circumstances. As for Curb-Agajanian, we will do about 4-5 more races. I don’t know about Watkins Glen yet. At the moment I am not driving the 4.”

Taken from CAPG43.com - the Curb-Agajanian Performance Group website.

P.J. JONES
#43 Diversified Partners/Kroger 25th Anniversary Dodge
NASCAR Busch Series Kroger 200
Saturday, Aug. 5, 2006 – O’Reilly (Indianapolis) Raceway Park
TV: Live on TNT, 9 p.m. EDT; Radio: Live on MRN
Product Partners: Wiley X Eyewear, Rod End Supply, Planar, Odyssey Batteries, Shurtape, Smith Transport, Mobile Storage Group, X1R, Hylomar, Lehigh Safety Shoes, High Performance Coatings, Gunk, Dayco, E.A.R.,Inc.

FAST FACTS

**After a four-race hiatus, the #43 Diversified Partners/Kroger 25th Anniversary Dodge team of the Curb Agajanian Performance Group comes to O’Reilly (Indianapolis) Raceway Park with driver P.J. Jones behind the wheel for Saturday night’s NASCAR Busch Series Kroger 200.

**Last we saw of Jones and the #43 team, the veteran driver had a stellar night at Daytona on July 1, racing his way from the back of the 43-car grid for a 13th-place finish, which stands as the team’s top race-day effort in 2006.

**Saturday night’s 200-lap race around the 0.686-mile oval here will be Jones’ 27th career NBS event and his second at O’Reilly Raceway Park. His other NBS start here was in 2000, and he also drove in the 1995 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race here, qualifying fourth in the #1 Sears DieHard entry.

**Jones already has a major auto race in Indianapolis under his belt for 2006. He drove the #98 Curb Records-sponsored IRL IndyCar Series CAPG entry to a 19th-place finish in the Indianapolis 500 last May.

**Aaron Fike drove the first 13 events in #43 CAPG Dodge. He put it on the front row at Daytona, qualified sixth on the superspeedway at Talladega, and recorded top finishes of 15th at Nashville and 18th at Bristol in 14 starts. Road racing specialist Chris Cook recorded followed with strong qualifying and race efforts at Nashville and Kentucky in June. Cook will be back behind the wheel at Watkins Glen next week.

**As it was at Daytona, on board as a sponsor of the #43 CAPG Dodge this weekend is Scottsdale, Ariz.-based real estate developer Diversified Partners (www.diversified-partners.com), which also sponsored Jones’ CAPG entry at the Indy 500.

**Kroger, one of the nation’s largest grocery retailers based in Cincinnati, is also on board with the #43 CAPG team this weekend to celebrate its 25th anniversary of sponsoring this event, the longest-running event sponsorship in NASCAR. Kroger (www.kroger.com) features more than 2,100 stores in 31 states operating as supermarkets, price-impact warehouse stores, multi-department stores, convenience stores, jewelry stores, and financial services under some two dozen banners.

**Nashville-based Curb Records (www.curb.com), and Ventura, Calif.-based Agromin Premium Soil Products (www.agromin.com) are also backing #43 team this weekend.

P.J. JONES QUOTES ON INDIANAPOLIS – “I’m really looking forward to getting back in the CAPG car. We had a great run together at Daytona, which amounted to a 13th-place finish and their best run in a couple of years. We’ll want to keep the momentum going on the short track at IRP. I’ve done a ton of laps there over the years, mostly in (USAC) Silver Crown and Midgets. I held the Silver Crown track record there for a while, but I’ve never been to the winner’s circle there. So that’s something I’d really love to do, perhaps even on Saturday night. It’s always an exciting race. We’ve got a lot of excitement going with Diversified Partners, and Kroger, which has sponsored the race for the last 25 years. We’ll look to pick up where we left off at Daytona and hopefully bring this team the attention it deserves from sponsors who can get it back to racing the Busch circuit every week. A good showing on Saturday night would do wonders to that end.”

Taken from CAPG43.com - the Curb-Agajanian Performance Group website.

#43 Diversified Partners/CAPG Dodge
NASCAR Busch Series Winn-Dixie 250
Friday, June 30, 2006 – Daytona International Speedway
Product Partners: Wiley X Eyewear, Rod End Supply, Planar, Odyssey Batteries, Shurtape, Smith Transport, Mobile Storage Group, X1R, Hylomar, Lehigh Safety Shoes, High Performance Coatings, Gunk, Dayco, E.A.R.,Inc.

DAYTONA BEACH, FL – P.J. Jones and the #43 Diversified Partners/Curb Agajanian Performance Group Dodge brought home a 13th-place finish in tonight’s NASCAR Busch Series Winn-Dixie 250 at Daytona International Speedway after starting at the back of the pack.

Unable to make it through technical inspection in time for their qualifying run earlier this afternoon, Jones started at the rear of the 43-car grid. But taking his first turn of the season behind the wheel of a superior CAPG speedway Dodge that qualified second at Daytona in February and sixth at Talladega in March, Jones was able to gradually work his way to the front over the course of tonight’s 103-lap event on the 2.5-mile tri-oval. He was into the top-30 by Lap 30, and broke into the top-20 by Lap 70. A final pit stop for a set of fresh, sticker tires enabled Jones to pick off the final four cars for his 13th-place finish, the best of the season for the #43 CAPG Dodge this season.

As the NBS series moves to Chicagoland Speedway next weekend (July 8th), the CAPG Dodge team continues its aggressive search for sponsorship to enable it full-scale return to the racetrack during the second half of the season.

P.J. JONES

“We knew when we unloaded the Diversified Partners Dodge was going to be good for us tonight. It only makes me wonder how things would have turned out if we would have been able to start somewhere closer to the front. I watched it do well at Daytona and Talladega earlier in the year and I was really looking forward to the opportunity to drive it. We seemed to be on the tight side for most of the night and had a tough time getting the tightness out. But it didn’t stop us from passing people. I’m really excited about where we finished, all things considered. Hopefully, we’ll be successful in finding the sponsorship we need to keep the momentum going.”

Driving the #34 Curb-Agajanian Dodge sponsored by Diversified Partners, P.J. Jones took a potentially bad weekend and turned it in to a 13th place finish at the Winn-Dixie 250 Busch Race in Daytona on June 30th.

“We had problems right from the beginning” PJ was quoted in a quick phone conversation. “We couldn’t get through tech inspection in time to qualify. Fortunately there were only 43 cars entered so we made the race, starting at the rear.”

A long green flag run, followed by a minor mishap with a runaway tire on a green flag pit stops had the 43 team a lap down in 26th place by lap 73.

A red flag condition followed a large wreck featuring Reed Sorenson, Paul Tracy and several other cars. PJ and his team decided to stay out during the ensuing caution, landing them on the inside pole for the restart, first car one lap down.

The strategy paid off as the next caution came out two laps later as Carl Edwards and Michael Waltrip tangled going in to turn 3. The 99 car of Waltrip was ruined but he was humorous during the post infield care center interview. “I like Carl. In fact I lent him my body once.” quipped Waltrip, “Carl superimposed his head on my body for his recent photo shoot in that muscle magazine.”

NASCAR imposed a one lap penalty on Edwards for aggressive driving, bad news for him. The good news for PJ was the “Lucky Dog” rule came to his favor, as he was given a free pass around the rest of the field and back on to the lead lap.

There were a few more cautions, including a spin by the #38 of Jason Leffler on the backstretch which led to a “Green, White, Checkers” finish. PJ dropped back as far as 18th in the final 20 laps, but powered past 5 cars in the last two to finish a strong and very respectable 13th.

The car showed signs of excellent power throughout the evening as PJ was actually able to catch a 5 car draft with no draft help himself. He favored the high line throughout the night which seemed to give him excellent speed off the corners.

We here at PJJones.org hope this leads to more Busch races for PJ in the future.