Erik Jones latest young NASCAR driver to create big impression

On a big stage and against top-flight competition, 18-year-old Erik Jones staged a coming-out party, winning two weeks ago in the Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

What stood out wasn’t just that he won, but how he won. Leading a race-high 79 laps, Jones got the better of Brad Keselowski and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a series of late restarts to pull away for his first series victory.

Although Jones’ talent was widely known within NASCAR circles thanks to three Camping World Truck Series wins since 2013, Texas is where those unfamiliar took notice. Both Keselowski and Earnhardt were effusive in their praise afterward, as was Jones’ car owner Joe Gibbs.

“We’re really proud of him,” Gibbs said. “I think he won his first Truck race in his fifth race. The big thing is tonight he beat some good people, good cars up front and really quality stuff. We’re proud of him and he should be proud of himself.”

Resembling Kyle Larson in 2013 or Chase Elliott last year, Jones is this season’s breakout young talent, whose rapid ascension is certain to land him a fulltime Sprint Cup Series ride sometime very soon. And like Larson, 22, and Elliott, 19, coinciding with Jones’ rapid rise are questions about when that eventual move to NASCAR’s top division will come.

With a full slate of truck races for Kyle Busch Motorsports in addition to a part-time Xfinity effort for JGR, Jones’ 2015 schedule is already quite robust. Which will only get fuller in the coming weeks as he’s likely to make his official Cup debut May 9 at Kansas Speedway driving Busch’s car. Busch is still recovering from a broken right leg suffered in a February crash at Daytona International Speedway. (Jones drove in relief of JGR teammate Denny Hamlin Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway, but because Hamlin started the race he is the driver of record.)

Beyond 2015, however, Jones’s future is undetermined. Similar to Elliott’s circumstances last year, whose rise to NASCAR’s top division was impeded by Hendrick Motorsports up against NASCAR imposed four-car limit, Jones finds himself in a similar situation with JGR, which already fields cars for Busch, Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards.

Elliott’s path cleared when Jeff Gordon announced in January he was stepping away from full-time competition at the end the current season. That option isn’t on the table for Jones and JGR, as Edwards, Hamlin and Busch are all under contract, in their 30s and in their respective primes as viable championship contenders.

As for Kenseth, 43, he’s exhibiting no signs of slowing down. Just two years removed from a seven-win season and a runner-up points finish, he won Sunday night at Bristol. Although Kenseth went winless last season, he did record more top-five and top-10 finishes in 2014 than 2013.

What JGR has working in its favor is Jones’ youth, which affords them the opportunity to be patient developing him. Even though the talent is obvious, it’s easy to forget that Jones is in his first full NASCAR season.

The logical step for 2016 is advancing Jones from trucks to Xfinity, while also dabbling in Cup. (NASCAR allows a team to run a fifth car solely for a rookie driver on a limited basis, as Hendrick is doing this season for Elliott.)

But if JGR foresees losing Jones because it cannot provide him a Cup seat immediately, one option would be to farm him out to another organization. In this scenario the likeliest of teams is MWR, another Toyota-supported operation and under the four-driver cap.

Over at MWR, Jones would be an ideal candidate to replace Brian Vickers, who’s battling health issues, though the organization is grooming its own young driver in Brett Moffitt. Or MWR could expand and add a third car team, provided sufficient sponsorship is found.

However, lending Jones to a different team presents challenges. Despite each having the same Toyota engines, the quality of JGR’s equipment compared to MWR’s is apparent. As a team, MWR hasn’t won a race since July 2013, whereas JGR drivers have a combined 10 victories during that same span.

By placing its prodigy in subpar cars, JGR runs the risk of Jones developing bad habits trying to compensate. And the cohesion between JGR and MWR is tenuous. Officials representing both teams were quite candid during the off-season about their lack of rapport in sharing technical data. Maybe Jones ends up being the bridge, but in its current state the environment isn’t conducive to develop an emerging talent.

“There’s no question that at some point very quick he’s going to be in a Cup car some,” Gibbs said following Jones’ Texas win. “I think we have a bit of a strategy there that we talked about. I think he’s ready to go at any time. We’ll just work with that as we go forward.”

While Jones’ long-term future sorts out, what’s apparent is that JGR isn’t lacking for talent. And as Gibbs knows from his days as an NFL head coach, a team can never have too much talent. Now, he just has to figure out how to best utilize it.