SPARTA – Erik Jones opened the door of his North Carolina home at 4:15 a.m. Sunday and stepped right into a party.

Hours earlier, Jones held off Martin Truex Jr. and won the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway. The July 7 win was the 22-year-old’s first NASCAR Cup Series victory.

Jones flew back from Florida after all his victory lane celebrations and greeted his family at the airport. Then he made the short trip to his house, where his friends were waiting to congratulate him.

“All my buddies were waiting there for me,” Jones said Friday at a news conference. “They had signs and everything made up. …

“They were having a good time in there waiting on me, I could tell. I got to go there and enjoy that with them.”

The pre-dawn celebration was well-earned for Jones. He’s shown talent at every level of racing and, with his first career win last week, ensured a spot in this fall’s series playoffs.

Jones takes the momentum of his first victory into Saturday’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. He qualified second for the event’s eighth installment, which will start at 6:30 p.m. CDT.

“Certainly getting that first win is a big deal,” said Truex, the defending race and series champion. “I can’t even tell you how much confidence it brings, especially a guy like him with a high-profile team (Joe Gibbs Racing) in a car that’s been successful and the pressure that he feels.

“Being able to race with that win in his pocket I think will help him a lot.”

Jones was just 17 in 2013 and running a part-time schedule when he won his first Truck Series race. He joined the Truck Series full time in 2015 and not only claimed Rookie of the Year honors but won the series championship.

The Byron, Mich., native moved up to the Xfinity Series in 2016 and earned its Rookie of the Year award.

Then came a move to the Cup Series in 2017, where he won yet another Rookie of the Year crown. He led 310 laps during his rookie season, recording 14 top-10 finishes and five top-five results.

Jones moved this offseason from Furniture Row Racing to fellow Toyota team JGR, filling the No. 20 seat previously occupied by Matt Kenseth.

A second season in the Cup Series has provided Jones some valuable familiarity.

“There were so many times we went to the track last year and were sitting on pit road before practice and I’m thinking, ‘I have no idea how to get around this track in a Cup car,’ ” Jones said. “You’re just sitting there trying to figure it out.

“This year we go back to those places and it’s like, ‘OK, I’ve got a good idea of what we’ve got to do here to be fast, be successful.’ … That makes things quite a bit easier from a driver’s standpoint.”

That added comfort in the driver’s seat has shown in Jones’ recent results. He finished fourth in April at Texas Motor Speedway, then endured a stretch where he finished outside the top 10 in seven of eight races.

Jones rebounded with finishes of seventh on the road course of Sonoma Raceway and sixth at Chicagoland Speedway. Then came last week’s breakthrough victory.

The second-year driver emerged unscathed through three different accidents that involved at least seven drivers. Despite not leading a lap all night, he found himself near the front for an overtime restart.

Jones got to the outside of the leader Truex with two laps left and ran even with him to the white flag. Jones side-drafted off Truex’s No. 78 car through Turns 1 and 2 and then got a push down the backstretch from Chris Buescher, vaulting him to the lead.

From there, Jones dipped down in Turn 3 to block a Truex rally and held off the field to cross the line first.

“The first thing that came to mind for me was family and then from there, my race team and how happy I was for them, what they put in,” Jones said.

“These last three weeks we’ve continued to improve … and that got us to victory lane. It was cool to see all the hard work pay off.”

The Jones victory marked a rare win this season for a driver outside the “Big Three” of Truex, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick. Those three veterans – all former NASCAR Cup Series champions – have combined to claim 13 of 18 checkered flags.

Jones is one of a collection of young drivers hoping to challenge those series stalwarts. But while Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and others all look for their first victories of the season, Jones now has one of his own.

“I’m really confident,” Jones said. “I think overall for the young guys, for us to get a win is important. I’d love to be the guy that gets some more. I guess that sounds greedy, but you want to be the young guy that’s taking the lead on it.

“Eventually we’re all going to be winning races on a consistent basis. It just takes time and experience and effort to get to that point.”

Kentucky on Saturday will mark Jones’ first race since clinching a spot in NASCAR’s 10-race, 16-driver playoffs that start in September.

The next eight races for Jones will center around collecting points and contending for stage and race victories that could enhance his playoff position.

Jones has his first taste of victory in the NASCAR Cup Series. He’s ready to race for more.

“Obviously, we’re really excited to be in the playoffs at this point,” Jones said. “But we also want to do really well and we want to succeed through the first and second rounds and make a run at this thing.”{&end}