Erik Jones began the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season showing promising speed at Daytona, but his performance quickly declined as his No. 43 Toyota team from Legacy Motor Club struggled to find consistency. The difficult period hit a low point when Jones finished 38th at Martinsville, raising concerns within the team about their prospects for the year.

Jones, originally from Byron, Michigan, and a veteran in the series, acknowledges these struggles but emphasizes the hard work his team has put in to turn things around. With the season progressing, he has pushed his way back up the standings, moving into 17th overall by securing several top-five and top-ten finishes.

Gradual Progress Through Persistent Effort

Rather than attributing his improvement to a single modification or breakthrough, Jones credits steady, quality work and perseverance under challenging circumstances. He explains that success in NASCAR is less about discovering a “magic bullet” and more about refining the car’s performance incrementally by optimizing the parts and setup available.

It would be fair to say we struggled to start the season,

Jones stated.

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.

Jones elaborated that their notable progress came from having enough time to organize the cars according to their preferences, especially for races at mile-and-a-half tracks, which have been their strongest circuits this year.

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.

Despite these improvements, Jones acknowledges ongoing challenges, especially on road courses and short tracks. A key technical challenge remains the simplified diffuser design, which has been a consistent difficulty over the past few seasons.

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.

Impact of Confidence and Momentum on Performance

Jones highlights the important role of confidence and mentality in sustaining a strong performance streak. He describes how earlier in the season, the team often entered race weekends struggling with poor qualifying results, which usually led to difficult races. But recent improvements in qualifying have contributed to better overall weekends.

I think it’s both,

Jones added, referring to momentum and confidence as key factors.

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?’

He explained that the recent upswing in qualifying results helped break that cycle, leading to a positive spiral of better performances.

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.

Jones also noted the advantage a good rhythm gives a driver during races.

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.

Upcoming Challenges and Potential for Breakthrough

Even with the recent positive momentum, Jones faces tough tests ahead, particularly in events like the Chicago Street Race and the Sonoma road course. These tracks do not align with Jones’s strengths, and so his ability to maintain the top-20 form will be challenged.

However, with renewed confidence and a steadily improving car setup, Jones and Legacy Motor Club look poised to compete for stronger finishes. A victory this season would mark a significant milestone in Jones’s career and might secure him a spot in the playoffs, reflecting his notable 2025 improvement.

It has been a fluctuating journey for Jones in NASCAR’s premier series, but his recent performances suggest he is gaining traction at a critical point in the season. Fans and analysts alike will watch closely to see if this veteran driver can capitalize on his current form and return to Victory Lane.