NASCAR: O'Reilly Auto Parts 500-Practice
Jerome Miron / USA TODAY Sports

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Bristol on Sunday afternoon for the Food City 500. Drivers will be looking to punch their ticket to the playoffs with a trip to Victory Lane.

One of those checkered flag hopefuls includes Erik Jones, who owns two top five finishes at the track in just four stops including a runner-up finish in 2017. Jones is 14-to-1 to win the race according to Westgate Superbook and is priced at a value $7,800 in DraftKings.

We caught up with Jones ahead of the race to discuss the latest around the event and NASCAR. Jones will be driving the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Craftsman Toyota. This week's special scheme is themed "Racing for a Miracle" in conjunction with Niswonger Children's Hospital. The car was designed by four pediatric patients and if Jones wins the race, Craftsman will donate $1 million to Children's Miracle Network Hospitals through the Ace Hardware foundation. They've already donated $100,000 as part of this weekend.

Feel free to listen to our entire conversation with Jones and read along with the highlights below.

Thoughts on racing at Bristol

"I've always really liked Bristol a lot. It's been one of my favorite tracks...For me it reminds me of a lot of the tracks I raced at in late models growing up and learning to race"

"You always get excited to go to one of your favorites and a place where you've also had success in the past. To feel like you have a chance to win any time you go there is a good feeling. Bristol is that place for me."

Finding out who rolled his RV with toilet paper after Daytona win

"I think I have a pretty good guess of who did it because I heard they were hanging out in the bus waiting for me. I believe it was Clint Bowyer. I don't know if that's for sure. Him and some other friends from up in the booth at that time I think were a part of that whole process."

How Erik Jones would fix NASCAR's qualifying woes

"It can be frustrating. You look at the way qualifying used to be, it was about bringing the fastest piece of equipment to the racetrack. That's been a little bit eliminated now. You're really relying on other cars to get a good lap in… There's a lot that needs to go your way to advance to the final round."

"The easy answer (on how to fix qualifying) is to go back to single car. It's not really what we want to do. I don't know if we really want to go down that road of having to build really specific cars for qualifying… Right now, I don't know if there's a better solution. That may be the road we end up going down here."

Will Christopher Bell be driving the No. 20 next season?

"I don't see that move happening on my end. Not from anyone that I've ever talked to about it. I feel like I'm in a position to stay (at Joe Gibbs Racing) for a long time… I feel like the last two years we've made a lot of progress in the right direction."

"Christopher is a great driver and he'll have an opportunity in Cup soon in the future but I don't think it'll be with my seat that's for sure."