TOYOTA RACING – Erik Jones
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
KANSAS CITY (Sept. 27, 2026) – LEGACY MOTOR CLUB driver Erik Jones and team President Michael Gutilla were made available to the media on Sunday morning prior to the NASCAR Cup Series race from Kansas Speedway, with the team announcing a contract extension with Jones.
ERIK JONES, No. 43 AdventHealth Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB:
MICHAEL GUTILLA, President, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB
You are here to today to announce some exciting news. Can you tell us about it?
JONES: “We finalized a contract extension for myself for multiple years. We got it done a little ways back, but we had to find the right time to get it announced to everybody. So, I don’t think it was a surprise to either side, something that came up a while back, and honestly, one of the probably easier negotiations I’ve had in my career just knowing kind of where I’m at and where the team’s at and everything came together really quickly. It was nice to get it done and focus forward from there. Happy to have it done.”
GUTILLA: “I think we’ve talked a lot about what Legacy’s goals are going forward, and with Jimmie Johnson coming on board and the current ownership structure, the team that’s put in place, we are on a five-year journey where one year into that. Erik is the cornerstone of that and has been. He’s been continuously building our program and making it stronger, until we were just really happy to be able to put a multi-year deal together that would be consistent with that time frame. And for our families, for our fans, for our hardworking employees, and our partners, we just knew this was going to be the next step. There’s such mutual trust between Erik and LMC, and what we’re building, and LMC, and Erik, and his abilities to get us where we desire to be.”
What does it mean to be associated with the 43 and the history in this sport?
JONES: I’ve been there for a long time now. I don’t know if I’m the second longest tenured driver to Richard (Petty) at this point, but I got to be getting close. That’s something cool, and for me, I’m a loyal person, and I don’t like to make changes. I like to stick with the people that I trust and have been with and think that can do a good job. To be back at the same group of people that we’ve put together over the last couple of years, it’s just something that I wanted to do, and wanted to be a part of. I’ve kind of seen the trajectory of where we went the last couple of years, and where we can go in the next five, as Michael mentioned, and it was something that I want to be a part of. I feel like I’m at a point in my career where I definitely feel as good as I’ve ever been in racing and only trying to get better from here. It’s been fun. It’s been a long journey. This is year, I think, six for me in the 43, and so it’s went by super-fast, but it’s been fun to see the changes in the growth and kind of where we’re headed.”
What do you both see with the new overall driver lineup at LEGACY starting next season?
JONES: “Relationships in racing are interesting, because at some point I feel like all of them are forced a little bit, and that’s not in a bad way. When you start to work with even a new crew chief or a new spotter you start those relationships and you agree to work together, but then you have to force each other and get to know each other. It’s no different from drivers, and I’m excited to have both of those guys in there, but I didn’t really know either of them. So just getting to know them and building those relationships, that only makes the next year easier. The conversation’s easier. You know, the hard conversations that you have with those guys and the mutual respect through the season of how you’re going to go about your business and your racing and everything that comes along with that. I’m excited to get to three cars more than anything. It’s huge for us as a company in the data point that we can achieve with one more car on the track. And having two guys, I’m not the oldest anymore at LEGACY. Josh (Berry) has five years on me, which is nice, but he’s got so much experience in racing from not only at the cup level only, but from on down to short tracks, and what he’s done, building teams and cars through there. And then Riley (Herbst) being not as young as some people would say sometimes, but he’s young in a Cup series. Just helping him grow and learn and continue to improve. We will have two great date points from Josh and myself as well, I’m leaning on and just try to learn to become the race car driver he wants to be.”
GUTILLA: “We have a driver lineup that, in calendar years, is very young. But Erik represents going into his 11th season. He’s the veteran driver of the group, and so the whole idea about what he talked about co-opetition between your drivers. How do they work with each other to make the whole stable better than the individuals. That was actually a factor in enabling us to round off our driver lineup. We kind of did these announcements in reverse order, but like Erik talked about, we had this deal done earlier on and being able to extend Eric’s deal for a multi-year contract allowed us to make the other decisions that you’ve heard in our first announcements that we rolled out. But really having Erik as the cornerstone allowed us to expand our program in that fashion.”
How important was continuity a factor in re-signing Erik?
GUTILLA: “Continuity is important. I would characterize Erik’s part of the team as continuous improvement and stable. He and Justin Alexander (crew chief) are a great pair. This is their first season together. It will be really exciting to see them enter into their second season after going through one season together and keeping that whole team intact, which was also intentional part of a complimentary strategy to some of the changes you’ve heard lately.”
Where do you stand with building out the three teams before cars hit the track next year in Daytona?
GUTILLA: “Fortunately, it’s not something that just hit us in the head overnight, right? We’ve had the charter now for awhile and we were able to prepare for it. We’ve really been building for that third team over the course of the last 18 months. And we have announcements that will be forthcoming in terms of how we’ve rounded off that team. We got some just great talent coming in from not only the crew chief perspective, which we just announced with Jeremy Bullins coming in. And also we have announcements to make, and as you know, some of these things are time blocked in terms of when you can make announcements, but we’re really pleased with the talent and the people that are both internally moving up inside of our organization. We very much pride ourselves on promoting from within, when we can do that. And it’s always good to complement that, though, with some veteran capability as well. So, you’ll see a mix of that coming into roundoff our third team.”
How much of a leader have you had to become internally at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB?
JONES: “I think that journey started probably six years ago. When I was out at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing), that was a pretty well-oiled machine. I was just kind of a piece of the puzzle there. When I joined the 43 I think we had 30 employees maybe and we were a single car team. And so all of a sudden there was a lot more decisions that I was involved with that maybe I knew, maybe I didn’t know. Some of it was just kind of winging it and hoping for the best, that I was making the right decision with the group that I was with, and just trying to learn. I was only three years in a cup at that point, I was 23 years old. I was just trying to kind of figure things out, but as I went through this journey and gotten to work with good people more and more and surrounded by good people. That’s what it’s all about at the end of the day. I can have my opinion and be a part of that discussion. And I feel like I have been, but I’ve got to have people that are smarter than me around me to help me formulate kind of those decisions. I want to focus on racing and that’s obviously my main job at the end of the day is just to get in the car and be the best I can be. And through the week, help my team the most I can, whether that’s on the simulator or being in the shop with them and build those relationships more, I have a great group on the 43. At the end of it all, the leadership role has been higher than ever. When I joined JGR I was 20 and the next youngest guy must have been at that time, Denny, and he was older than I am today, even still. It’s definitely different. It’s not necessarily in my wheelhouse, but it’s something I’ve learned to do more and more and try to be more involved with and just more engaged in meetings, and being there, and being a part of things, as many things as I can. Just trying to grow that side of it too.”
What will be key to success for you in today’s race in Kansas?
JONES: “We got a little ways to go. We just had a stretch here that hasn’t been what we wanted, and I think we were kind of looking for that one reset, that one race where things go right for you and you’ve had it even if you have a decent car, maybe some things during the day go well, and you luck out on a couple good calls or a good caution here and something turns your day into a great one. That’s what we need. So, the lap 35 competition yellow is good for us We’re starting 30th, so we’ve got to kind of work our way forward, hopefully, and then get a break and reset and go from there. But Kansas is a place you can pass. If you got a good car you can pass. I think back to Michigan earlier this season, we started dead last and it was one of our best races of the year. If you got the car, this is a place where you can make it happen and get to the front. So we just need to get rolling, we want to finish top 20. We don’t want to finish in the 20s in points again. We need to have a good stretch here to the end of the year. And we’ve got some good tracks we can do it, and I feel like starting with today, with Kansas. We just have to get rolling.”
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