Erik Jones explains newfound No. 43 speed after ‘struggle’ to start NASCAR season

Erik Jones showed some speed at Daytona to start the season, but then his No. 43 Toyota team fell into a bit of a rut. A less-than-stellar run was capped off with a P38 finish at Martinsville, which had Legacy Motor Sports wondering if they were doomed in 2025.

However, the Byron, Michigan native has improved by leaps and bounds over the past couple of weeks. He’s notched a couple top fives and top tens, improving to P17 overall in the point standings. Jones didn’t credit any specific change to his success, instead believing in the grind of the NASCAR season.

“It would be fair to say we struggled to start the season,” Jones stated, via Door Bumper Clear. “We worked on this car long enough. There’s no magic bullet. It’s not like you find some new part or piece that makes anything better. It’s kind of a game of quality control, and getting the best car you can from the pieces you got.

“I think we finally just had enough time to get our cars organized the way we wanted them to be. To where we could bring the best car we had to the track for certain weeks, in the races that we feel like we can run really well, which has been the mile-and-a-half stuff for us, this year, right now.

“The road course stuff, short-track — really this simplified diffuser has been kind of our Achilles heel for the last couple of years. I don’t know that it’s any one thing. … A lot of just good work from a lot of people.”

Unfortunately for Jones, road courses aren’t his specialty, so the Chicago Street Race and Sonoma back to back won’t help him. However, he’s riding a wave of momentum and it’s bringing him some confidence. Perhaps it’ll lead to a win and a playoff appearance for the veteran wheelman.

“I think it’s both,” Jones added, regarding how momentum and confidence have aided his improvement in 2025. “The confidence is one, for sure. Not even the confidence, but just the mentality of it. You kind of get in that rut of, week-to-week, where you’re not running well and the cars aren’t doing what you want. You’re getting to like Wednesday, Thursday, getting ready to go to the track and you’re like, ‘Oh man, is it going to be another week of fighting the car?’

“It’s not good in practice. We don’t qualify well. You don’t qualify well, then your whole weekend’s kind of not going to be great, probably from there. We’ve got to a roll where we’re qualifying good. … That kind of started getting better and climbing week to week.

“Then, as a driver, I think you just get settled in that groove once you’re kind of rolling. It gets harder to make a mistake, I feel like almost, because you’re not pushing as hard. You’re just taking what you’ve got, because your car is good and you’re able to run up front. That’s kind of where we’ve been. … Everything up to this point, since really probably the Coca-Cola 600, has been pretty good for us.”

It’s been a roller coaster career for Erik Jones in the NASCAR Cup Series, but he seems to be hitting his stride with Legacy Motor Club this season. We’ll see if he can get to Victory Lane this summer, as it would truly signal his impressive improvement if he’s able to take a checkered flag in 2025.