Friday 5: Dogs make weekends at the track better for many Cup drivers

Erik Jones’ dog flies to races in style.

Oscar, an 85-pound German Shepherd, sits in his own seat on the team charter next to Jones. Oscar likes the window seat.

“He just kind of stares out the window and watches along,” Jones said.

Oscar is among several dogs that travel with Cup drivers throughout the season, providing a sense of home and companionship at the track.

Oscar is one of the bigger dogs at the track among those owned by Cup drivers and that can prove intimidating for dogs of fellow competitors, Jones notes.

“He’s a good dog,” Jones said. “He’s calm and listens well, so that helps a lot. … He makes a lot of other dogs nervous in the (driver/owner) lot.”

Jones said about the only dog Oscar gets to play with because of his size is Ruby, a golden doodle that belongs to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ruby is about a year and a half.

“She’s pretty chill,” Stenhouse said. “Even at home, she’s never really torn up furniture or anything like that.”

Ruby travels with Stenhouse and his wife to most races unless it is a long flight.

“We love having Ruby with us,” said Stenhouse, who had Ruby join him and his wife in Victory Lane after winning this year’s Daytona 500.

“The times that we don’t have her there are like ‘Dang, we miss her.’ Most of the time we take her.”

Harrison Burton has a golden retriever named Remi. She’s about a year-and-a-half old.

Other than a brief period when she tore some molding where Burton lived, she’s been calm and hasn’t gotten into any of his racing gear.

“She always carries toys around but no shoes,” Burton said. “That’s a good thing.”

Burton said that his dog and Stenhouse’s dog are “buddies. Whenever they’re around each other, there’s chaos, for sure.”

Ryan Blaney and his girlfriend have two dogs