Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
This is the best way to articulate where Erik Jones and the Legacy Motor Club No. 43 team now find themselves this summer, but especially right now in the aftermath of a penalty for an illegal parts modification, one that has cost them a tremendous amount of ground in the playoff race. Jones is now 28th in the championship standings and 122 points out of a playoff berth.
But truthfully, things have not gone well for either Legacy Motor Club team this season, and the penalty to Jones was merely an extension to an otherwise disappointing campaign. They were 62 points out of a playoff spot even before the penalty.
It’s a surprise because Jones drove to an upset victory in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway last summer as part of an impressive stretch that saw the iconic No. 43 race around the top-10 for most of the season.
Expectations were high leading into the Daytona 500 but not much has gone right. Simply stated, it’s been a bad case of Murphy’s Law for the Statesville, N.C., team.
Erik Jones: ‘Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong’
A squad that earned 13 top-10s last season has just two of them through 15 races. They haven’t recorded a single top-5 after earning three in 2022. The case could be made that the illegal greenhouse modification was just an effort by the team to find speed where there hasn’t been any. Below is the area where NASCAR found an unapproved parts modification.
Jones spoke exclusively to Sportsnaut this week before and after the penalty announcement on Wednesday to understand what has gone wrong to this point. Jones was racing a Super Late Model near his childhood home in Western Michigan and took time to explain the struggles.
“I mean, man, it’s hard to pinpoint one thing, you know,” Jones told Sportsnaut on Tuesday evening. “I think it’s just everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.”
Murphy’s Law.
“Like, even taking performance out of it,” said Jones,” I feel (the Coca-Cola 600 at) Charlotte was a really good day for us and then we had a radiator issue. Then obviously, Gateway, I think it was going to be an okay day and then we had the issue on pit road.”
The issue was front tire changer Thomas Hatcher getting tripped up during a pit stop during the final stage of the rear, falling and suffering a concussion, and being forced to miss this weekend’s event at Sonoma Raceway. If it’s not a mechanical issue with the No. 43 car, it’s something like this happening to a crew member.
His teammate, Noah Gragson, will also miss this weekend’s race after suffering a concussion himself during the race on Sunday at Gateway. Truck Series contender Grant Enfinger will drive the No. 42 at Sonoma.
Jones and everyone at Legacy Motor Club just can’t catch a break.
“Just when I feel like we’re finally getting out cars kind of close to where we want them to be, we now just have the rest of the world falling down on us,” Jones said.
Now, whatever performance advantages the No. 43 might have found by tampering with the greenhouse has been negated by the penalty — 60 driver and owner points, five playoff points; a fine and two-race suspension to crew chief Dave Elenz.
Erik Jones’ challenging car
Erik Jones said this car is especially challenging from an engineering standpoint in ways different from any NASCAR platform before it because this isn’t a matter of just finding more downforce. It’s a car that also rewards finding mechanical grip to pair with the aerodynamic grip.
“It’s interesting because the old car was all about chasing downforce, chasing pure speed, so getting them to drive right wasn’t that hard,” Jones said.
“Whereas this car, and this is a conversation my engineer and I had last week, we actually have to get them driving good. It’s not like you can just pile-on all the downforce from the simulator and just go out and race it.
“That doesn’t always really add up. So, it’s kind of a unique perspective. You’re sometimes chasing things that seem a little bit backwards. I’m pretty sure we’re not the only team that feels that way. It’s tough, because this car is still so new that we think we know what we’re doing, making changes that should make the car drive really good, and it just hasn’t always added-up that way.”
One good bit of news is that Jones was able to win that Super Late Model race at Berlin Raceway on Wednesday night in a car he owns and maintains. It took some of the pressure off a Cup season that has started to spiral out of control.
At the time of his victory, he had not fully had time to digest the penalty and its implications.
“It’s obviously unfortunate,” Jones told Sportsnaut. “I don’t know what the plan of attack is … Hopefully we can find one. It’s a bummer for a lot of reasons. Dave sitting out is not something we want. The points penalty and fine is not something we need either.
“We got to figure out what went wrong there. I don’t think it was anything intentional on our part. I need to dive in there more with them to figure out what happened.”
As it pertains to the rest of his season, and any chances to make the 16-driver playoff, the math does get really simple for Jones over the next 11 races. There is no way he can make the playoffs on championship points but he would automatically qualify by winning a race.
“We were close to that point anyway,” Jones said. “We have 11 races to do it. I think we can, if we hit it right, and we did it last year. We’re going to try to stay strong and push hard for it.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.