Although Pro Stock driver Rickie Jones didn’t qualify for the NHRA national event at Norwalk, Ohio in June, it didn’t ruin his season.

Jones, who pilots the Elite Motorsports Pontiac GXP, was still 10th in the point standings.

However, with the West Coast swing – consecutive races in Seattle, Sonoma, Calif., and Denver to follow – Jones’ team decided to change its focus and sit out those events.

“We took time off so they (the team) could work on the engines,” the 23-year-old Jones said. “If we were out West, those three races in a row would have made it really hard for them to improve our engines from now until Indy. We want to make gains before Indy and try and focus on running well the rest of the year.”

Although Pro Stock driver Rickie Jones didn’t qualify for the NHRA national event at Norwalk, Ohio in June, it didn’t ruin his season.

Jones, who pilots the Elite Motorsports Pontiac GXP, was still 10th in the point standings.

However, with the West Coast swing – consecutive races in Seattle, Sonoma, Calif., and Denver to follow – Jones’ team decided to change its focus and sit out those events.

“We took time off so they (the team) could work on the engines,” the 23-year-old Jones said. “If we were out West, those three races in a row would have made it really hard for them to improve our engines from now until Indy. We want to make gains before Indy and try and focus on running well the rest of the year.”

As part of finding more horsepower, Jones’ Elite Motorsports team was at Martin, Mich., testing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Hopefully this test session will help us as we prepare for the remainder of the season,” said Jones, who has dropped to 15th in the points after missing the West Coast races. “The plan is to be back at Brainerd, and run strong.”

The next NHRA national event is the Lucas Oil Nationals are Aug. 12-15 in Brainerd, Minn., which also is the final event in the Countdown to 10 in the regular season. The Countdown to 1 championship playoffs start Sept. 1-6 at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.

“To me, the U.S. Nationals is the biggest race of the year and definitely the most special to me,” Jones said. “If we can run well anywhere, that’s where I want to do it. Since, we didn’t go out West, we have no chance of being in the Countdown. We just thought it was more important if we could improve and maybe come out and run well at Indy and maybe win some races at the end of the year.”

Jones, who finished a career-best 10th in the Pro Stock point chase a year ago, says missing the Seattle, Sonoma and Denver events wasn’t easy for him.

“Sitting at home is never fun,” Jones said. “Obviously, we want to be at the race track every weekend racing and competing and that’s what I love to do. We just decided this (skipping the West Coast swing) was something we needed to do to try and improve the engine program and also get the opportunity to test and get all of our ducks in a row. If I could have my choice of winning a race this year or finishing in the top 10, I would probably choose winning a race. Last year, we finished 10th and it was difficult to win. We want to step up our game (the rest of this season) and maybe put us in position where we could win a race. That’s the goal for us.”

With no stake in the Countdown to 1, Jones believes that will benefit his team.

“We’re not worried about points and we are just going to go out there and go for it every week,” said Jones, who had a season-best runner-up performance at Bristol (Tenn.) in June. “I just want to win a race really bad. To do that, we’re going to need to be a top 5 car with top 5 horsepower. We want to build up some momentum the rest of this season and take that into next year.”