If Jones was interested, Williams could make a few calls. He just needed Jones’ resume, his football highlight tape, and a paragraph explaining why he was interested in NASCAR.
“I literally just got sent home from Buffalo, I don’t know what I’m about to do with my life,” Jones said. “I got that to him in 15 minutes.”
Ultimately, he didn’t sign with Hendrick Motorsports. In the recruiting process, Jones just felt more at home with Team Penske, like Clemson.
Like a football player, Jones is always training, working on his get-off speed to a car, improving his feel for popping a wheel into place, and building the grip strength to better control a wheel gun.
Racing teams would rather train up athletes, rather than everyday mechanics, because they thrive under pressure. They move fast, shaving tenths of a second to get a car across the finish line first.
Jones is in Team Penske’s “bullpen,” meaning he can sub for another pit crew member, if needed, but he’s still in training. Unassigned to a car, Jones readily pops into Clemson as a familiar face in a slightly different uniform.
When it was announced in March that NASCAR reps attended Clemson’s pro day, the attendees were actually Jones and Penske’s development coach, Greg Keziah.
This week’s visit from Penske was a long-awaited follow-up to Clemson’s P.A.W. Journey trip to a Las Vegas race track. Penske would bring pit road to the Tigers’ fall camp.
Jones had no idea until a week or two ago that Logano would be the driver.
“Never really been a huge NASCAR guy,” Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik said. “But that was, like, top 5 coolest things that we’ve ever done in Clemson football.”