Editor’s note: This is the seventh in a series in which we review the top 30 drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series in reverse order of the 2025 final standings.
Driver: Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
Crew chief: Ben Beshore
Final 2025 ranking: 24th
Key stats: 0 wins, 4 top fives, 5 top 10s, 11 laps led
How 2025 ended: Compared to 2024, Jones and Legacy Motor Club took a step forward in the organization’s second year with Toyota. The No. 43 driver improved his spot in the final standings from 28th to 24th, while John Hunter Nemechek, his teammate, took a huge leap to 25th after finishing 34th in last year’s table. Of note, Jones had three more top fives and top 10s than he did a year ago. Although Jones has not visited Victory Lane in the Cup Series since his upset win in the 2022 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway or made the playoffs since 2019, there is plenty for the 29-year-old Michigan driver to be optimistic about as Legacy M.C. continues its upward trajectory.
Best race: To no surprise, the driver who earned the nickname “That Jones Boy” from late Hall of Fame broadcaster Ken Squier showed up big time at his best track in the Southern 500 at Darlington. In the closing laps, four Toyota drivers were fighting for a crown-jewel win at the iconic South Carolina track. As Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe and 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick battled intensely to win and advance from the Cup Series Playoffs Round of 16 in the postseason opener, the non-playoff driver in Jones sat closely behind them, ready to pounce if the duo made contact. Jones ultimately settled for third place, with teammate Nemechek finishing fourth to conclude a strong night with a pair of top fives for an organization on the rise.
RELATED: 2026 Cup Series schedule | Erik Jones driver page
Other season highlights: In an early sign of good things to come, Jones picked up a top five at Texas Motor Speedway, which was his first of five during the 2025 season. Three races later, Jones finished seventh at Nashville Superspeedway to keep the momentum rolling into the summer stretch. In the third round of the In-Season Challenge, Jones was matched up against teammate Nemechek at Sonoma Raceway in a battle of Legacy M.C. pilots. The No. 43 driver also put himself in the mix in the final laps of the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway with a fifth-place finish, nearly making the playoffs for the first time in six years.
Stat to know: With his third-place finish at Darlington, Jones now possesses nine top 10s in 16 career starts at the “Lady in Black,” good enough for a top-10 finish rate of 56.3%.
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Quotable: “It’s just kind of a mentality of it was time to turn it around. I felt like we had good tracks coming up. We had been putting more and more speed in our cars. I would say right around Charlotte is probably the time things started to go good. I kind of reset on my own and said, ‘Alright, I need to do the things that I do well again and just focus on what I can control and try to make it work.’ And about that time, cars started getting better, (and) I felt like I started making good decisions. And since then, it’s worked out really well. We haven’t always got the finishes, I think, that we’ve been capable of, but we’ve ran well in stages and got a ton of points. So it’s all going to come together more and more. The more you bring top-10 cars, that’s going to come your way more consistently. But the points rally has been probably the biggest, I think, in my career.” — Jones on Legacy Motor Club’s progress in the Cup Series.
Looking ahead: Jones is expected to return to the No. 43 Toyota in 2026. If Legacy M.C. can continue making progress behind the scenes at the shop under the leadership of Hall of Fame team owner Jimmie Johnson and have those gains translate over to Sundays more consistently, 2026 might be the year Jones can return to the winner’s circle and return to the playoff picture.