Jones drove from 12th to 4th on the opening lap before a late-race incident ended a promising run
Portland, Ore. (September 5, 2023) – Cape Motorsports battled hard through the INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Portland weekend, with Jagger Jones pacing in the top four for much of the race before a late race incident set him back in the field.
Driving the No. 98 Total Sim/Mecum Auctions Dallara, Jones, 21, powered through a turn one incident involving seven cars to advance from 12th to fourth by the second corner. But late in the race, an incident with the car behind flattened his tire, sending him to pit lane and a 12th place finishing position in the 35-lap race.
"The competition is so tight here in INDY NXT, it’s all about the details – hitting your marks every lap, no mistakes, getting the most out of the car every time you get the opportunity,” said Dominic and Nicholas Cape. “We had a few ups and downs, but the car got better every session and by the end of the weekend, we had good pace. We had spent a couple of days at the Dallara simulator, which for us was a massive help, with limited to relatively no testing this year. We should be able to get back in the Dallara simulator before Laguna, hopefully. The team once again did a wonderful job as usual, big thanks to them.
“Onwards to Laguna Seca and the land of cool, looking forward to having Kiko (Porto) back on our team with Jagger for the last races of the year.”
The team worked on downforce and balance through two practice sessions, with Jones finding increasing speed. Jones put the medal down from the drop of the green in qualifying Saturday morning, intent on making the most of the short eight-minute session, and at the checkered flag, Jones had secured the 13th starting position. “We closed up the time difference to the leaders, but I made a mistake going into turn one that cost us a bit. Looking for a good start tomorrow and good race pace,” said Jones.
Cloudy and cool conditions greeted the field as the green flag dropped just two hours ahead of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES’ BitNile.com Grand Prix. As the field entered the tight Festival Curves complex, multiple cars locked their brakes, with several making contact. Jones broke early and slid over the curbs on the inside of turn one, avoiding the carnage that took out seven cars, coming out of the melee in fourth position.
Restarting the race on lap seven, the field quickly settled into a rhythm. Jones set about chasing down Nolan Siegel while keeping Christian Bogle in his rear-view mirror. As the laps ticked down, Jones focused on hitting his marks and laying down consistent laps times. At the halfway mark, he began balancing tire management and speed as he maintained his lead over Bogle.
But on lap 29, Bogle made a move, and Bogle’s left front made contact with Jones’ right rear in turn 10, flattening Jones' rear tire and sending him on a wild ride through turns 11 and 12. Jones recovered quickly and immediately dove into pit lane for a new right rear Firestone tire. He then returned to pit lane to serve a drive-through penalty as race control deemed Jones responsible for the contact. Jones came home P12 at the checkered flag.
“That’s the most hectic turn one of the year and from where I was starting, I thought I could either be in the middle of it or just in the right spot,” said Jones. “I could see everyone braking much later than I had planned, so I broke sooner – just about everyone ahead locked up and missed the corner. I really hit it with perfect speed and avoided all the chaos on the inside. I was side-by-side with Bogle for fourth going into turn 4 and got it before the yellow came out. That has to be one of the biggest gains on a start all year.
“We didn’t quite have the pace of the three ahead but had enough to keep the guys behind me. Bogle got a run on me on the back stretch and stuck his wing to the inside – from my in-car video, it looks like I gave him plenty of room, he just ran into my right rear tire and flattened it. When I went into the corner, I didn’t have any maneuverability with the flat tire so in my opinion, there wasn’t much I could do. It’s unfortunate, because fourth would have been a good finish for us.
“But there were plenty of positive takeaways. If we can gain in qualifying, I know we can race with those guys. So we’ll focus on that at Laguna Seca – it will be different for everyone with the new racing surface so we’ll see what happens.”
Next up for Cape Motorsports will be the INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey season finale doubleheader, with Kiko Porto once again joining Jones on the team. Practice and qualifying sessions will be broadcast on INDYCAR LIVE and INDYCAR Radio, with the race live on Peacock.
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Photo credit: Penske Entertainment/Chris Owens
