Toyota GAZOO Racing – Erik Jones
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
INDIANAPOLIS (July 26, 2025) – LEGACY MOTOR CLUB driver Erik Jones was made available to the media on Saturday prior to the NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
ERIK JONES, No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB
Erik, can you talk a little bit about what you have going on here?
“Yeah, so yesterday we went to Julie’s place (Case, CEO, Ultimate Canine Training) in Westfield, Indiana. We drove over there. It was a great facility. I’m not going to take all of Julie’s thunder here, but they do a lot of training on multiple different dogs. We took my dog, Oscar, out there and ran him through a surprise course that they had out there set up for us. He gave it his best effort and did okay. He got through it. It was a lot of fun, and it was neat to see. We brought a few dogs from Ultimate Canine today that you can see up front hanging out that are in training and getting ready to go home with their families. We also have another announcement. This is a plushie that looks like Oscar. This is going to be something that is going to be available this weekend in the merch trailer, also, on my website – the Erik Jones Foundation website. It is going to be raising funds to go towards our cause of Animal Welfare, helping out groups like Ultimate Canine with their dog training effort and multiple other areas we do with animal welfare. Something we’ve been working on a long time, and we’ve been having fun with it this weekend here in Indy. Happy to have some dogs here in the media center for the media to enjoy.”
Why was it important to connect with Ultimate Canine?
“Well, we started the foundation, I guess it has been almost four years, and I felt like the animal welfare portion has been probably one of the pillars that we’ve – we have done quite a bit with – but not as much as we have with the cancer or reading side. It hasn’t been as much as the forefront, and I’ve been wanting to bring it more forward. That has been a really big objective with the foundation, so as we kind of dove into that and figured out ways to connect, the plushie was a huge way we came up with the raise money for it, for one, but connecting with groups like Julie (Case, CEO, Ultimate Canine Training) and what they do, for me has been pretty fun. We did some work a few years ago with a group in Michigan with some training for police canines, and then to see Julie’s organization and to see what they do with the police work here locally and internationally with some other work with special ops dogs and with family dogs – as these are not quite special ops dogs here today. To see the work they do with all of the different kinds of trainings and just to see these first-class facilities, for me, is something that is pretty neat. Growing up, we always had dogs, and funny enough, my mom was big into training our dogs, so it was always something that was just interesting to me to see the different groups that train these dogs and what goes into it, and I think just to see the potential of dogs. It gets so overlooked sometimes – you meet these dogs, and you don’t always see their full potential and to see them working hard, and learning and getting smarter is something that is pretty neat.”
Who can get into corners faster – you or Oscar?
“I think Oscar (laughter). Even at eight years old, he can get pretty quick for a couple of minutes if he wants too. He’s just been a great dog. I’ve had Oscar since I was a single guy, and to watch him through meeting Holly (Jones’ wife), her and I getting married, and now having David, our eight-month-old and the way that he has adapted with him and grown with him, he has just been such a great dog in so many different ways, and a great companion. I just hope that everyone gets that experience and honestly, having a resource like Julie (Case, CEO, Ultimate Canine Training) and Ultimate Canine that you can have that a dog that is trained – it makes your life so much better with that dog and your relationship with your dog so much better, and just to try to share that through different communities is pretty important to me. With Oscar and the training that he had as a puppy, it has made the time with him over the last eight years even more enjoyable.”
Are you familiar with any organizations that help foster dogs for the military members when they are overseas?
“That’s honestly not something that I’ve done with the foundation at this point but would love to learn more about it. Trying to just expand the animal welfare portion of the foundation. The other two pillars – with cancer and reading – they are so far off and running with different causes, that is kind of doing itself, but the animal welfare portion, I’ve been trying to grow this last year, so definitely something to look into, and I think we have a resource with Julie (Case, CEO, Ultimate Canine Training) and those groups, so would definitely love to look into it.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.
Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of nearly 49 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants. In spring 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina will begin to manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles. With more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, Toyota currently offers 31 electrified options.
For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.
