FORT WORTH, Texas – They’re not exactly identical twins, but Ed Jones the INDYCAR driver met Ed Jones the Dallas Cowboys legend on Thursday at Texas Motor Speedway.
The retired football great was known as “Too Tall” Jones for his 6-foot-9 stature that disrupted many an offense in his years as an All-Pro defensive end. When the racer of the same name came to the United States to compete in 2015, some in the INDYCAR paddock called him “Too Tall” – clearly tongue in cheek since Ed Jones the racer is more than a foot shorter than the football player.
As he progressed through Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires for two years before joining the Verizon IndyCar Series last year, the race driver earned the nickname “Too Fast.” Jones was the Sunoco Rookie of the Year for the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season and is driving the No. 10 NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing Honda in this weekend’s DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway.
The Joneses met at the track’s Speedway Club on Thursday and quickly had their own competition of word association, where they were asked to define or describe terms used in both sports but with drastically different meanings such as “pass,” “draft” and “donut.”
Watch it here:
DXC Technology making special delivery of green flag for race
DXC Technology is serving as title sponsor of the Texas event for the first time and the primary sponsor on Simon Pagenaud’s No. 22 Team Penske Chevrolet in the race.
On Wednesday, Pagenaud visited the Plano, Texas, office of the leading global, end-to-end IT services company. While there, Pagenaud had the opportunity to participate in a drone flying exhibition, as DXC Technology explores the use of drone technology in business applications.
In fact, DXC will use an Inspire 2 drone to deliver the green flag for Saturday night’s race to honorary starter Dan Hushon, the senior vice president and chief technology officer of the company. The Inspire 2 model can accelerate from 0 to 50 mph in five seconds and has a maximum speed of 58 miles per hour.
Plans for the drone have it taking off from TMS’ Turn 3, flying through Turn 2 and then Turn 1 before heading down the frontstretch for the flag delivery.
"I'm super excited about it because drones show you a different picture than what you're used to," Pagenaud said. "We need to evolve and see something different. We need youngsters to be interested in what we do. If we don't evolve with the society, we're going to be forgotten.
“This is great news to have the drone carry the flag for the start of the race. I'm really excited to see that happening and that we're allowing new technology to be a part of racing."