Erik Jones

Erik Benjamin Jones (born May 30, 1996) is an American professional stock car racing driver.

He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE for Legacy Motor Club.

His nicknames are EJ, his initials, and That Jones Boy, given to him by announcer Ken Squier.

Until 2021, Jones had spent his entire NASCAR and ARCA career with Toyota, and while in their driver development program, he won the 2015 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship.

He would return to Toyota's NASCAR program in 2023 when Legacy Motor Club would switch their manufactural allegiance to them.

Jones began his racing career at the age of seven, in quarter-midget racing; he began racing stock cars at age 13, and began competing in the ASA Late Model Series in 2010, becoming the youngest-ever winner of the Oktoberfest race at LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway.

Moving to the Champion Racing Association's CRA All-Star Tour in 2011, he won the series championship in his rookie year; Jones also was the winner of that year's Governor's Cup 200 late model race at New Smyrna Speedway, leading every lap of the event; he was the first driver not born in the state of Florida to achieve that feat in over thirty years.

In December 2012, Jones held off NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kyle Busch to win the prestigious Snowball Derby.

Jones moved to the ARCA Racing Series for the 2012 season, becoming the first-ever driver to compete in the series at the age of 15; competing in 10 of the series' 19 races (he was not eligible at tracks longer than one mile), he posted a best finish of third at Winchester Speedway and Berlin Raceway.

In December 2013, Jones was named the winner of the 2013 Snowball Derby after the original winner, Chase Elliott, was disqualified after post-race inspections revealed a piece of tungsten in his car.

In 2013 Jones picked up his first ARCA Racing Series win at Berlin Raceway after dominating the whole race.

In March 2013, Kyle Busch Motorsports announced that it had signed Jones to drive in five age-eligible Camping World Truck Series races in the team's No. 51 Toyota Tundra, driving at Martinsville Speedway, Rockingham Speedway and Iowa Speedway, as NASCAR relaxed the "Kyle Busch Rule" in that series where the minimum age was reduced from 18 to 16 at ovals shorter than 2,000 meters and road courses.

Jones finished second in his third career start in the series at Iowa.

In October, Jones added another prestigious late model trophy to his collection, winning the Winchester 400.

On November 8, 2013, Jones became the youngest driver ever to win in the history of NASCAR's top-level competition to that time, winning the Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix International Raceway over Ross Chastain at the age of 17 years, five months and eight days.

In January 2014, it was announced that Jones would return to KBM in the Truck Series for 2014, competing in all age-eligible events and selected longer track events after he turned 18.

On July 11, 2014, at Iowa Speedway, Jones dueled Ryan Blaney and ultimately held him off for the win.

On September 13, 2014, at Chicagoland Speedway, Jones qualified for Kyle Busch, who would later go on and win the race.

On September 27, 2014, Jones won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for his first longer track win.

On November 7, 2014, Jones picked up his 4th career Truck Series win under the red flag at Phoenix, due to a power outage.

On November 6, 2014, it was announced that Jones would run the full 2015 season in the Trucks for KBM, his first age-eligible season racing for a championship, as well as running an increased slate of races for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series.

On June 19, 2014, Joe Gibbs Racing announced that Jones will run three races with the team's No. 20 in the Nationwide Series after he became age-eligible.

Jones would make his Nationwide Series debut a month later in the EnjoyIllinois.com 300 at Chicagoland Speedway.

He would finish in the top ten in all three races.

In 2015, Jones started his season strong with a 2nd place finish at Daytona International Speedway.

At Kansas Speedway, Jones would pick up his first pole of the season.

In June, Jones would qualify well, winning pole position at Texas Motor Speedway, Gateway Motorsports Park, and Iowa Speedway.

In the same race at Iowa, Jones would score his first win of the 2015 season.

In August, Jones would win the pole for the Pocono Mountains 150 at Pocono Raceway.

In the same month, Jones would score his second win of the season at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, gaining the points lead for the first time in his career after Tyler Reddick, the points leader entering the race, got into a wreck.

After a string of top-ten finishes, Jones picked up win number three on the season at Texas Motor Speedway, extending his point lead over Crafton.

Jones battled with defending champion Matt Crafton and Reddick during the 2015 season and beat them to win the Championship.

In 2015, Jones ran 25 races in the renamed Xfinity Series, splitting the No. 20 and No. 54 Toyotas for JGR.

In 2016, Jones would return to KBM to run a single race at Gateway Motorsports Park.

Jones would end up finishing 5th after starting the race in 6th.

Jones would again return to KBM for a single race in 2018, this time racing at Pocono Raceway.

He would finish in 2nd place behind his teammate and truck owner, Kyle Busch.

In 2020, Jones joined a partnership between Wauters Motorsports and former team owners James Finch and Billy Ballew to run the Truck race at Homestead–Miami Speedway.

The effort was spurred by a bounty from Kevin Harvick and Marcus Lemonis for full-time Cup drivers who could beat Busch in a Truck race.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the plan shifting to Charlotte Motor Speedway, but Jones was excluded from the 40-truck field as the No. 5 had no points in the owner's standings.