KANSAS CITY, Kan. \u2014 When Erik Jones arrived at the No. 43 team in 2021, the organization was a single-car operation with roughly 30 employees.<\/p>\n
Six years later, Jones has become far more than just the driver of the iconic No. 43. With LEGACY MOTOR CLUB set to expand to three full-time Cup Series entries in 2027, Jones now finds himself serving as the veteran leader of a growing organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that journey started probably six years ago,\u201d Jones said of his leadership role. \u201cWhen I joined the 43, I think we had 30 employees maybe and we were a single-car team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones said his responsibilities have evolved significantly since leaving Joe Gibbs Racing, where he viewed himself as \u201cjust kind of a piece of the puzzle\u201d within an established championship-caliber organization.<\/p>\n
As LEGACY grew, Jones became increasingly involved in decisions affecting the team\u2019s future while helping shape its culture and direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of it all, the leadership role has been higher than ever,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organization\u2019s confidence in Jones was evident Saturday when LEGACY announced a multi-year contract extension, ensuring the driver of the No. 43 Toyota remains a centerpiece of its long-term plans.<\/p>\n
President Michael Guttilla called Jones \u201cthe cornerstone\u201d of the team\u2019s five-year vision and said securing his future helped pave the way for the organization\u2019s expansion plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s such mutual trust between Erik and LMC,\u201d Guttilla said. \u201cHaving Erik as the cornerstone allowed us to expand our program.\u201d<\/p>\n
That leadership role will grow even larger next season as Jones becomes the veteran of a new driver lineup that includes Josh Berry and Riley Herbst.<\/p>\n
While Jones welcomes the additions, he believes the biggest advantage of a three-car operation will be the increased collaboration and data sharing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to get to three cars more than anything,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt\u2019s huge for us as a company in the data points that we can achieve with one more car on the track.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Kan. \u2014 When Erik Jones arrived at the No. 43 team in 2021, the organization was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":911910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-911909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=911909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}