His driver’s license still had that new-ink sheen when 16-year-old Erik Jones and his family hauled on down to Pensacola, Fla., to race in the Snowball Derby in 2012. The Snowball is every weekend racer’s Daytona 500, and where all the local track legends meet to suss out small-time supremacy.
But this year was different. The super late model race attracted a ringer. Kyle Busch, a NASCAR veteran, brought his multimillion-dollar team to show the yokels who was boss. This is like Kevin Durant turning out at a Saturday afternoon YMCA pickup game. One of the drivers was so offended, he chucked a hammer at Busch.
Jones had a snowball’s chance in a sauna of beating Busch. But he didn’t back down. The teenager from Michigan flirted with the lead from the green flag. With 20 laps to go, Busch pinned Jones to the outside line. Jones juked and undercut to the inside, taking a lead with only five laps left. Busch bumped his fenders once, then again. But the teenager was flying. Right to the checker.
In one legend-making race, Jones catapulted into prominence. He suddenly was a phenom. A little more than four years later, Jones will strap in to pilot his first full NASCAR season, driving the newly constructed No. 77 Toyota for Denver-based Furniture Row Racing.
“I just kept moving up from there,” Jones, now 20, said Monday at the FRR shop in the Park Hill neighborhood. “That was only four years ago. Pretty crazy how fast it all comes along. I never would have thought it would get to this point so quickly.”
The little team that could keeps climbing. Martin Truex Jr. captained FRR’s No. 78 to the NASCAR Chase playoffs the past two seasons. Furniture Row already was on the racing map. Truex put the team in the middle. Sponsors came calling. So FRR, the only major NASCAR team based outside of the Carolinas, added a second ride.
FRR needed a driver. The longshot team might as well hire a longshot kid.
Jones, after besting Busch at the Snowball, received a promotion into the Truck Series in 2013 — and from Busch himself. Jones was too young by NASCAR rules to race full time, but he drove five races for Busch’s team in the trucks circuit in 2013. At Phoenix in November, he started second and cruised to a victory in the 150-lap race, becoming at 17 the youngest winner of a major race in NASCAR history.
“When you get thrown into situations, you rely on instinct more than anything else,” Jones said. “That’s what got me to this point, instinct and natural ability. You have to sink or swim. You either figure it out or you don’t.”
Jones’ history with FRR, though, dates further back. When he was 14, Jones already had a manager. And he showed up at Michigan Speedway in 2010, sneaking into FRR’s trailer.
“His manager told me, ‘He’s the next up-and-coming star. You have to meet him,’ ” said Joe Garone, Furniture Row Racing’s general manager. “I went into the trailer and he just happened to have Erik with him. And I was like, ‘He’s just a kid!’ Then I started watching him, and man, what a talented kid.”
Jones’ trajectory never slowed. In his first full trucks season, in 2015, he vaulted to the top of the standings two-thirds through the season, then held on to win a championship. He also made his Cup Series debut with Joe Gibbs Racing as a fill-in for Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth.
Furniture Row and Gibbs Racing have a working alliance. So Jones’ move to the No. 77 was a natural. They started talking about a contract midway through last season.
That contract, though, is a one-year deal. Jones, with a pedigree dating to the Snowball Derby, may be destined for a bigger contract at a bigger team, likely back with Gibbs.
But for now, as a rookie in NASCAR’s top circuit, Jones will drive next to Truex with his eyes on catching the bullies. Not much different than the Snowball.
“Growing up racing late models, that’s pure fun,” Jones said. “There’s no business side to it. You show up at the track and try to win the race. This is a little bit more than that. But for me, it’s still fun to show up at the track every week.”
The New 77
Erik Jones will race his first full season on the top NASCAR circuit starting at Daytona on Feb. 26, piloting Denver-based FRR’s new No. 77 Toyota. Where did he come from?
Age: 20. From: Byron, Mich. Now lives: Charlotte, N.C.
Started racing: Quarter-midgets when he was 7, stock cars when he was 13.
Big break: Won the super late model Snowball Derby in 2012, and again in 2013.
Already accomplished: Won the 2015 NASCAR Trucks series title in his first full season.
Big-league debut: 2015 as a fill-in for Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin.
Last season: Drove for Joe Gibbs Racing in NASCAR’s top minor-league circuit, finishing fourth.
