Erik Jones: From Snowball Derby Winner to a Legacy Motor Club Cup Driver

Erik Jones is a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver for Legacy Motor Club, where he drives the No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE. He won the 2015 Camping World Truck Series championship while in Toyota's development system, and he took Cup wins at Daytona in 2018 and Darlington in 2019. He signed a contract extension with Legacy in September 2026.

Jones is a Michigander by birth and started racing young, moving from quarter-midgets to stock cars before he was a teenager. He goes by EJ, his initials, and the nickname That Jones Boy came from announcer Ken Squier. Until 2021 he spent his entire NASCAR and ARCA career with Toyota, and he returned to the manufacturer in 2024 when Legacy switched.

How did Jones start his racing career?

Jones began in quarter-midget racing at seven and started stock car racing at 13. By 2010 he was running in the ASA Late Model Series, and he became the youngest winner ever of the Oktoberfest event at LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway. In his rookie year he won the 2011 CRA All-Star Tour championship.

In 2011 he also took the Governor's Cup 200 at New Smyrna Speedway, leading every lap of the late model event. He was the first driver not born in Florida to achieve that in more than thirty years. The following December he held off Kyle Busch to win the Snowball Derby, and in December 2013 he was named the winner of that race after Chase Elliott was disqualified for a piece of tungsten found in his car after the race.

Kyle Busch Motorsports then signed him for five age-eligible Camping World Truck Series starts in 2013. NASCAR had lowered the minimum age for short ovals and road courses that year, and Jones made use of the change. His early Truck results were quick, including a second place at Iowa Speedway on his third career start.

A Truck champion at twenty who became a Cup winner, then rebuilt his career through two teams and a Toyota return.

How did Jones fare in the ARCA and Truck series?

Jones made his ARCA debut in 2012 at fifteen, becoming the first driver to race in the series at that age. He ran ten of the nineteen races that season, as tracks longer than one mile were closed to him, and posted best finishes of third at Winchester Speedway and Berlin Raceway. In 2013 he dominated at Berlin Raceway for his first ARCA win.

In the Truck Series, Jones won the Winchester 400 late model race that October and then, on November 8, 2013, took the Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix at the age of seventeen years, five months and eight days. He beat Ross Chastain in that race, and the sport's records list him as the youngest winner in the top-level history of NASCAR to that point.

He returned to KBM for 2014, running all his age-eligible events and selected longer tracks after turning eighteen. He won at Iowa on July 11, holding off Ryan Blaney, and took his first longer-track win at Las Vegas on September 27. He added a November win at Phoenix under a red flag during a power outage, his fourth career Truck win.

The 2015 Truck season was a full-time campaign with Kyle Busch Motorsports. Jones finished second at Daytona, took poles at Kansas, Texas, Gateway and Iowa, and won at Iowa, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and Texas. He won the title ahead of Matt Crafton and Tyler Reddick. A 2020 plan to race the Homestead event fell through when the team moved to Charlotte, and Jones was left out of the forty-truck field because his truck had no owner points.

How did his Xfinity Series career develop?

Jones debuted in the Xfinity Series in July 2014 at Chicagoland Speedway for Joe Gibbs Racing and finished in the top ten in all three of his starts that year. In 2015 he ran 25 races, splitting Gibbs' No. 20 and No. 54 Toyotas. He won his first Xfinity race at Texas on April 10, 2015 in the No. 20, and later that year he took the Chicagoland race in the No. 54 after a battle with Ryan Blaney.

In 2016 he raced full-time for JGR's No. 20. He won four times, including Bristol and Dover, and entered the Chase as the number one seed after his September Chicagoland win. He advanced to the championship round at Homestead, where he finished fourth in points behind Daniel Suarez, Elliott Sadler and Justin Allgaier.

In 2017 he ran a part-time Xfinity schedule while racing full-time in Cup, but he won back-to-back races at Texas and Bristol in April. He worked as a pit reporter for Fox alongside Cup drivers at Pocono in June, and in 2019 he drove the XCI Racing Toyota at Bristol, finishing 37th after a multi-car pile-up. His last Xfinity appearance came in August 2021, when he entered the No. 31 for Jordan Anderson Racing at Watkins Glen and crashed out.

What was Jones's path to full-time Cup racing?

Jones made his unofficial Cup debut at the 2015 Food City 500, taking over Denny Hamlin's No. 11 car. After Hamlin's neck spasms, Jones fell to 37th before finishing 26th, two laps down. Hamlin was credited with the result because he had started the race.

His official debut came at Kansas that year in the No. 18 for Kyle Busch. Jones qualified twelfth and led early, but crashed while running fourth and finished 40th, 25 laps down. In November 2015 he made his first triple-duty weekend, running all three national series at Texas and Phoenix, and he was named JGR's No. 20 driver after Matt Kenseth's suspension. He finished twelfth at Texas and nineteenth at Phoenix.

Furniture Row Racing signed him for its No. 77 in August 2016, for the 2017 season. At Bristol that August he won his first Cup pole and led 260 laps, but he lost the lead late to Kyle Busch and finished second. He had led only fifty laps in his first 26 starts before that race.

In July 2017 JGR announced that Jones would replace Matt Kenseth in the No. 20 full-time in 2018. His first Cup win followed on July 7, 2018, at the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona. After overtime, he got a big push from Chris Buescher on the last lap and held off Martin Truex Jr. to win. That result secured him a place in the playoffs, though he was eliminated in the Round of 16 after poor finishes at Las Vegas and the Charlotte Roval. He finished the season 15th in points.

How did Jones's Cup seasons unfold with Joe Gibbs Racing?

His second Cup win came at Darlington on September 2, 2019, securing his place in the playoffs. At the Charlotte Roval he needed a strong finish, but a multi-car incident on a restart damaged his radiator and eliminated him from the Round of 16. At Richmond he had finished fourth before being disqualified for a rear-wheel alignment problem found in post-race inspection.

Jones opened 2020 by winning the Busch Clash after three overtime periods, with a push from Denny Hamlin on the final lap. The rest of the season was harder. He went winless for the first time since his rookie year in 2017, missed the playoffs after a wreck at Daytona, and finished 17th in points. In August 2020 Leavine Family Racing announced its sale, and JGR confirmed it would part ways with Jones at the end of the season, closing a relationship that dated back to 2012.

What did Jones achieve with Petty GMS and Legacy?

In October 2020 Richard Petty Motorsports confirmed Jones for its No. 43 in 2021, replacing Bubba Wallace. He finished 24th in points that year. For 2022 he stayed in the No. 43 under sponsorship from FocusFactor, and RPM was purchased by GMS Racing to form Petty GMS, with Ty Dillon joining him as teammate.

At Darlington in 2022 Jones won the Cook Out Southern 500, which gave Petty GMS its first win. The victory was the No. 43's first since 2014 and the car's 200th overall. He finished 18th in points that year.

2023 was harder. He started the season with Guns N' Roses sponsoring the car at the Daytona 500, where he finished 37th after an early wreck. In June, after the Gateway race, NASCAR penalised the team for illegal modifications to the car's greenhouse, docking it 60 driver and owner points and five playoff points. Crew chief Dave Elenz was fined $75,000 and suspended for two races. Jones still finished third at Kansas in an overtime restart, his first top-five since his Darlington win, and ended the season 27th in points with seven top-tens.

In 2024 he finished eighth at the Daytona 500, but he hit the wall hard in a four-car wreck at Talladega and suffered a compression fracture in a lower vertebra. Corey Heim drove the car while he missed Dover, and Jones returned at Darlington. Results were poor for Legacy that year, and Elenz was replaced by Ben Benshore for the final five weekends. Jones finished 28th in points, and he signed a multi-year deal with the team.

In 2025 he finished twelfth at the Daytona 500, but he was disqualified after the car failed the minimum weight requirement at Martinsville. Two consecutive top-five finishes at Daytona and Darlington helped him finish 24th in points. In 2026 he started the year with a 21st-place finish at the Daytona 500, then won his first career stage at Texas. On September 27, 2026 he signed a contract extension with Legacy Motor Club.

How did Jones's Cup seasons compare by team?

Jones's Cup career has run through Joe Gibbs Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, Petty GMS and now Legacy Motor Club. The table below shows his main Cup results from 2017 onward, which is the period in which he ran full-time at the Cup level.