Keeping up with this Jones not easy
When you perform a Google search for Erik Jones, seven photos pop up on the search title box. Six are of brightly colored artwork. One is of a youngster sporting a perfect smile and black fireproof coveralls adorned with Toyota patches.
Erik Jones from Brooklyn works with paint.
Erik Jones from Michigan trades it.
Erik Jones, the artist, paints contemporary abstract portraits.
Erik Jones, the racer, sort of paints by numbers — a "1" followed by a "7" and maybe a "5," with fractions of mph tacked on at the end.
When I mentioned Erik Jones, the artist, to Erik Jones, the up-and-coming with-a-bullet NASCAR driver, Erik Jones the racer knew of whom I was speaking.
He said Erik Jones, the artist, must be pretty good to have his pictures on Google like that.
Erik Jones, the NASCAR driver, is only 19 years old. He drove one of Kyle Busch's NASCAR Camping World Series trucks in Saturday night's Rhino Linings 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Racing people say this Erik Jones is pretty good, too.
During last year's truck stop here, Jones was only months out of high school. On the night he was to graduate, he was racing at humongous Texas Motor Speedway. They gave him his diploma, on the track, before the green flag.
He missed his senior prom, though.
Erik Jones the racer took the lead with 20 laps to go here last year on his way to his first win on a big oval.
Erik Jones the artist might have called it a subtle stroke of the brush. Vibrant and colorful and expressing a heightened sense of realism.
On Saturday night, Jones started at the back. Nothing subtle about that. He qualified only mid-pack, after which it was decided to sub out the engine in the No. 4 truck.
Within five laps, he had passed half the field. Within half-distance, he was running fifth.
He finished ninth, after running out of fuel at the end. He still leads in points by a narrow margin (4).
Matt Crafton, a former two-time series champion, was leading when he, too, ran out of fuel, as did other front-runners.
John Wes Townley made it to the end for his first truck series win.
It was all about fuel mileage Saturday. But as the NASCAR announcers often say, once you get to this level, it's usually about track position.
Sometimes it's also about positioning oneself off the track.
It seems the young whippersnappers who get the fast rides often have a famous racing daddy, or a rich one, or some other connection in a high and fast place.
Erik Jones grew up near Flint, Mich., better known for its laid-off assembly line workers than its NASCAR stock car drivers. He had none of the benefactors listed above. But he knew somebody, in a lower place, who knew Kyle Busch, the Sprint Cup star from Las Vegas.
They were introduced in 2012. A few months later they got reacquainted at this offseason race in Florida they call the Snowball Derby, where both were entered.
Jones won it.
Busch talked to Jones about driving for Busch in the truck series.
Jones agreed, with a certain amount of boyish enthusiasm.
Jones won some truck races for Busch; Jones won a couple of races in the Xfinity Series driving for Busch's Sprint Cup boss Joe Gibbs, the old Redskins coach.
Soon it was getting difficult for more seasoned drivers to keep up with the Joneses. Or at least the one named Erik without a palette and a canvas.
When Busch crashed at Daytona in February and broke his leg, Jones drove Busch's Cup car, at Kansas, in May. The youthful protege was running fourth when he crashed.
So Jones is happy he was introduced to Busch, and happy he held him off in the Snowball Derby — and really happy he agreed to drive for him with a certain amount of boyish enthusiasm.
He said he didn't mind missing the prom.
When a whippersnapper jumps into a noncompetitive truck and finishes 27th, it's usually not long before said whippersnapper winds up frying hash browns at Waffle House.
Driving for Busch, running 27th is not likely. Nor is it an option.
"There are a lot of talented guys out there who will never get a shot, not even in the truck series," Jones said after the haulers had pulled into town on Friday. "It's 'right place, right time,' and I was extremely lucky I was able to get in that situation."
He said he owes it all, or at least most of it, to Kyle Busch. And the Snowball Derby. And now next year he has a full-time ride with Joe Gibbs in the Xfinity Series. The only rung above that on the NASCAR ladder is Sprint Cup, and the kid appears to be headed there, and the kid is only 19.
If I were the other Erik Jones, I'd start swinging the brush real fast, like that guy with the frizzy hair on PBS who painted happy little trees.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him: @ronkantowski
