Where Will Erik Jones End Up Next Year?

The 19-year-old, fast-rising young gun and Michigan native, Erik Jones, is presenting a problem, a dilemma if you will, for the old football coach, Joe Gibbs!  Presently Joe Gibbs Racing has four very talented race car drivers in their stables that could win the Sprint Cup championship this year, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, and Matt Kenseth. Now JGR has a fast rising talent kid named Erik Jones in their minor league team, the driver of the JGR No. 20 Game Stop Toyota in the XFINITY Series.  Jones is looking more and more like he could capitalize on his 2015 success when he won the CWTS championship, buy winning the 2016 XFINITY championship!

So Jones’ successes have really begged the question that is probably haunting that organization (JGR) daily: “What is Joe Gibbs Racing going to do with this talented race car driver next year?”

Well at this point it is quite obvious that JGR is not going to force the hands of any of their four Sprint Cup drivers to leave at the end of this season.  That would not be the JGR’s best interest, for sure!  So what does JGR management do for 2017?  That dilemma might be the $64,000-dollar question in many race fans’ eyes in the early part of this season!

Where will Erik Jones be at the beginning of the 2017 NASCAR season?  Jones has already stated that his 2017 plan is already made and he, JGR and Toyota will be announcing it shortly.

Well race fans, take a few minutes to ponder on what is going on this season with Toyota. Furniture Row Racing, that maverick little team based out in Denver Colorado, switched from a step-child of Chevy to being a fully supported Toyota race team. Barney Visser, owner of Furniture Row Racing, jumped at the chance to be a Toyota funded team in 2016 and have an alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing simultaneously!  Look at the early success that his team has had so far.  Martin Truex,Jr. and his Furniture Row Racing team missed a win at Daytona by inches!  FRR presently sits comfortably in 11th place in the Sprint Cup standings. FRR is looking more like a championship-contending team each week.

For those race fans who may have missed Visser’s statements last year that he plans on having a two car race team in 2017 please pay close attention to the following.

If you are a puzzler, a person who enjoys putting puzzles together, then it will be easy for you to follow my lead and my logic!

Since JGR has four really talented race car drivers in their stable presently, and that NASCAR has a limit of four race teams per owner, then what I am proposing will flow like the Mississippi River down to the Gulf!

If you were Joe Gibbs and had this extremely talented race car driver that has won the CWTS championship last year, and it appears that Jones is one of the favorites to capture the 2016 XFINITY championship, you are now in a situation that you MUST find a place for him or risk losing his talent to another Sprint Cup team owner, who no doubt is salivating at that thought! That idea is not a far-fetched thought at this point in time.

Hello Barney Visser!

As was mentioned above, Barney Visser and his Furniture Row Racing now have an alliance with JGR for all their Toyota racing needs.  This year those needs are chassis, engines, and any technical info and data needs.  But what about the 2017 needs for FRR?

Visser stated that he will be a two car team in 2017, therefore his needs have increased to include a race car driver for 2017. And as also mentioned above, there appears to be a very talented young gun chomping at the bit to “get off of the porch and hang out with the BIG DOGS “!

Now I am not an economist, but it sure looks like the supply and demand theory here. Visser and his FRR are in need of a racecar driver and JGR has an abundance of good talent – read Erik Jones – and that would be the supply side of the economy.

So race fans, you have heard it first here that it is my well thought out, and most humble, opinion that Joe Gibbs Racing will loan out Erik Jones to FRR, and you will find that young gun will be the driver of the second Furniture Row Racing team in 2017!