Erik Jones Appreciation Thread

Hope his second try driving Toyotas in cup does better than his first.
 
The Nature Boy said:
I wonder how he feels about Legacy going to Toyota after Toyota so casually tossed him to the curb for Christopher Bell.
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Considering both will be in Toyotas if he stays, he might like having the chance to beat Bell in equal cars and stick it to him and JGR.
 
The Nature Boy said:
I wonder how he feels about Legacy going to Toyota after Toyota so casually tossed him to the curb for Christopher Bell.
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Oh yeah, that's exactly what they did. Please show me where WE casually tossed him to the curb for Christopher Bell. WE don't own a team. Educate yourself. Erik and Toyota are just fine.
 
hmmm298 said:
Considering both will be in Toyotas if he stays, he might like having the chance to beat Bell in equal cars and stick it to him and JGR.
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Oh yeah....that's how Erik rolls. What bull****.
 
Revman said:
Oh yeah, that's exactly what they did. Please show me where WE casually tossed him to the curb for Christopher Bell. WE don't own a team. Educate yourself. Erik and Toyota are just fine.
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Bell was TRD’s Golden Boy and the Preacher is working hand in hand with TRD. If TRD wanted Jones to stay, the Preacher would have found another ride for Bell.
 
The Nature Boy said:
Bell was TRD’s Golden Boy and the Preacher is working hand in hand with TRD. If TRD wanted Jones to stay, the Preacher would have found another ride for Bell.
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That's right. TRD calls all of the shots at JGR. You are exactly right. Where is the Golden Boy in points? Take those two drivers side by side. Good decision?
 
StandOnIt said:
Jones is going to take the best offer. With the glut of drivers and no seats available that the yoders have, Jones might be having happy feet. A SHR ride would be hard to beat.
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After @Allenbaba --who you hold in high regard--posts that there may be more Toyota seats than drivers by '25. Don't let the facts get in the way of your BS.
 
Revman said:
After @Allenbaba --who you hold in high regard--posts that there may be more Toyota seats than drivers by '25. Don't let the facts get in the way of your BS.
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I was talking about right now for Jones swifty, Jones is going to take the best offer for him. You hold baba in high regard. One is garage rumors and the other is mostly fantasy as far as I am concerned.
 
StandOnIt said:
I was talking about right now for Jones swifty, Jones is going to take the best offer for him. You hold baba in high regard. One is garage rumors and the other is mostly fantasy as far as I am concerned.
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Right now he is under contract.
 
If Bell replaced MTJ then the team would’ve gotten the same flack they caught for replacing Kenseth with Jones. When you have more options than seats difficult decisions have to be made.

Bell took off in his second season and is maintaining that level so far in year 3, a jump Jones failed to make in three seasons with JGR. It’s hard to say JGR were in the wrong on that decision so far.
 
Jones's second and third year for Gibbs in Cup were a win in each year, 19 combined top 5's and 35 top tens. I don't see much failed there. I do see the hurry to keep Bell regardless and boot out Jones. It's in the yotas DNA.
 
The Nature Boy said:
Hard to tell given the difference in equipment.
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What difference? When you get to the Cup Series especially now, everyone is running the same stuff. If you are looking for a difference its gonna be the people. It used to be the fab guys, the machinist, now its engineers and more engineers. I'm sure JGR has Legacy outgunned in that respect but its still so hard to find an advantage with the way NASCAR has narrowed the box they can navigate.
 
Spotter22 said:
What difference? When you get to the Cup Series especially now, everyone is running the same stuff. If you are looking for a difference its gonna be the people. It used to be the fab guys, the machinist, now its engineers and more engineers. I'm sure JGR has Legacy outgunned in that respect but its still so hard to find an advantage with the way NASCAR has narrowed the box they can navigate.
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Engineers make a huge difference and they’re also expensive since they can have lucrative careers outside of racing. JGR definitely has better engineers who can squeeze all they can out of the spec parts. Legacy doesn’t have nearly the resources that JGR does and when it’s so hard to find an advantage, that makes a HUGE difference.

Legacy is also off compared to last year and I don’t think Jones has lost a step.
 
StandOnIt said:
Jones's second and third year for Gibbs in Cup were a win in each year, 19 combined top 5's and 35 top tens. I don't see much failed there. I do see the hurry to keep Bell regardless and boot out Jones. It's in the yotas DNA.
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That was his first and second with the team, he regressed in his third season and didn’t make the playoffs. Years 2 and 3 he combined for 19 Top 5s and 30 Top 10s, Bell already has 17 and 28 with two thirds of a season to go.

Jones finished 15th, 16th, and 17th in points. The only time he beat a JGR teammate over the course of a season was his first, when Suarez was still there. Bell finished 3rd last year and is currently 2nd…there’s not really any comparison.
 
FLRacingFan said:
If Bell replaced MTJ then the team would’ve gotten the same flack they caught for replacing Kenseth with Jones. When you have more options than seats difficult decisions have to be made.

Bell took off in his second season and is maintaining that level so far in year 3, a jump Jones failed to make in three seasons with JGR. It’s hard to say JGR were in the wrong on that decision so far.
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My issues with the Jones deal is that he was the third young driver that JGR dumped when they showed promise but weren’t as good as their teammates. Joey Logano and Daniel Suarez were tossed aside when Matt Kenseth and MTJ became available. The only difference with Jones is that he was tossed aside for a younger driver.

JGR had a tough choice either way but I hate seeing young talent snuffed before it can fully develop. It’s not good for the long term health of the sport. I still hate what happened to Casey Atwood. I also think Jones will be a better driver than MTJ in the long term.

Replacing MTJ might have been difficult since he brought BPS funding. The BPS funding is also why I think MTJ would be okay, he could have taken his funding to another good ride.
 
The Nature Boy said:
My issues with the Jones deal is that he was the third young driver that JGR dumped when they showed promise but weren’t as good as their teammates. Joey Logano and Daniel Suarez were tossed aside when Matt Kenseth and MTJ became available. The only difference with Jones is that he was tossed aside for a younger driver.

JGR had a tough choice either way but I hate seeing young talent snuffed before it can fully develop. It’s not good for the long term health of the sport. I still hate what happened to Casey Atwood. I also think Jones will be a better driver than MTJ in the long term.

Replacing MTJ might have been difficult since he brought BPS funding. The BPS funding is also why I think MTJ would be okay, he could have taken his funding to another good ride.
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I think this board gets confused about who they are pissed at....JGR or TRD....the narrative is both.....but probably isn't the truth. Bell was better than Jones...and Jones was a better option than Kenseth asking the big check....anywhere else and those are rational yet savage business decision....here....the bull**** JGR and/or TRD narrative courtesy of the StandOnIt-o-philes.
 
Revman said:
I think this board gets confused about who they are pissed at....JGR or TRD....the narrative is both.....but probably isn't the truth. Bell was better than Jones...and Jones was a better option than Kenseth asking the big check....anywhere else and those are rational yet savage business decision....here....the bull**** JGR and/or TRD narrative courtesy of the StandOnIt-o-philes.
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Man I am pretty sure JGR/TRD could fire Jeff Gordon circa 1997-1998 and you would find a way to justify it.

Let’s call a spade a spade here.
 
The Nature Boy said:
My issues with the Jones deal is that he was the third young driver that JGR dumped when they showed promise but weren’t as good as their teammates. Joey Logano and Daniel Suarez were tossed aside when Matt Kenseth and MTJ became available. The only difference with Jones is that he was tossed aside for a younger driver.

JGR had a tough choice either way but I hate seeing young talent snuffed before it can fully develop. It’s not good for the long term health of the sport. I still hate what happened to Casey Atwood. I also think Jones will be a better driver than MTJ in the long term.

Replacing MTJ might have been difficult since he brought BPS funding. The BPS funding is also why I think MTJ would be okay, he could have taken his funding to another good ride.
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Truex was coming off three straight seasons where he finished 1st or 2nd in the championship when that decision had to be made and I think people would’ve been in an uproar if he got dumped for Bell in that case. That scenario was also forced by LFR going under as Leavine’s construction company was disproportionately affected from the onset of COVID, and needing to place Bell somewhere else.

Logano had four years there and didn’t improve, which seems like a decent enough time span to show some real strides. At that point Home Depot is probably asking hard questions as well, or DeWalt/Stanley in Jones’s case. Big F500s like JGR has partnered with for a long time don’t have an excess of patience themselves, not for the amount of money they were paying.

I think these guys going to smaller teams where there wasn’t as much pressure and they could have more resources dedicated to them has shown to be a better environment anyways. At least going forward TRD will now have more options for driver placement going forward.
 
The Nature Boy said:
Man I am pretty sure JGR/TRD could fire Jeff Gordon circa 1997-1998 and you would find a way to justify it.

Let’s call a spade a spade here.
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Standard StandOnIt-o-phile post.......turn it into a Revman's biased thing--which I have acknowledged time and again.....FWIW....Water is wet.
 
A lot of talk around Erik's time at JGR revolves around performance. Erik's talent was never in question. His "demise" at JGR was death by 1,000 cuts off the track. He just had very little interest in doing the things it takes to be a superstar in the sport. The fact that Sport Clips was one of his biggest sponsors and, at the time, he had one of the most unkempt hair styles in the garage (despite being lectured about it a lot) is one example. There are 999 more. It just wasn't going to work. Has he learned from that experience? I think so.....??
 
Allenbaba said:
A lot of talk around Erik's time at JGR revolves around performance. Erik's talent was never in question. His "demise" at JGR was death by 1,000 cuts off the track. He just had very little interest in doing the things it takes to be a superstar in the sport. The fact that Sport Clips was one of his biggest sponsors and, at the time, he had one of the most unkempt hair styles in the garage (despite being lectured about it a lot) is one example. There are 999 more. It just wasn't going to work. Has he learned from that experience? I think so.....??
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It was the hair. 🤡
 
Allenbaba said:
A lot of talk around Erik's time at JGR revolves around performance. Erik's talent was never in question. His "demise" at JGR was death by 1,000 cuts off the track. He just had very little interest in doing the things it takes to be a superstar in the sport. The fact that Sport Clips was one of his biggest sponsors and, at the time, he had one of the most unkempt hair styles in the garage (despite being lectured about it a lot) is one example. There are 999 more. It just wasn't going to work. Has he learned from that experience? I think so.....??
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Is it fair to recognize that Erik was dealing with his father's illness and subsequent death during this time as a contributing factor is his off track work habits? I think it is.
 
Revman said:
Is it fair to recognize that Erik was dealing with his father's illness and subsequent death during this time as a contributing factor is his off track work habits? I think it is.
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Maybe? I think the bigger problem wasn't any kind of "dealing with," or personal struggle by then...I think it was the lack of someone who could truly put sense into him. Dave would have given him the tough love he needed, and Erik probably would have responded. It's likely he's fixed those issues by now. That's the beauty about young people - they often mature.
 
Allenbaba said:
Maybe? I think the bigger problem wasn't any kind of "dealing with," or personal struggle by then...I think it was the lack of someone who could truly put sense into him. Dave would have given him the tough love he needed, and Erik probably would have responded. It's likely he's fixed those issues by now. That's the beauty about young people - they often mature.
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I hope this is happening to Deegan as well - seems be be.
 
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