NASCAR driver Erik Jones confirms his return to RPM next season
NASCAR driver Erik Jones said he will return to Richard Petty Motorsports next season behind the wheel of the No. 43 car.
He told reporters at Michigan International Speedway ahead of Sunday’s Cup race that he recently signed the deal.
RPM last season announced that Jones joined the team with a “multi-year contract,” but Sunday’s announcement confirmed that the parties agreed to exercise his option for 2022.
“We’ve been really working on getting this deal done for a few weeks,” Jones said. “I was pretty comfortable on moving forward next year with these guys. Just continuing to build and just not starting from scratch with a group next year with the new car and trying to build something there.”
Jones, 25, is a Byron, Michigan native who’s earned three top 10 finishes this season, most recently placing seventh at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course last weekend for his best 2021 finish.
Jones sits 25th in points heading into Sunday’s race (3 p.m. on NBCSN). He has two career wins in the series driving for Joe Gibbs Racing full-time between 2018 and 2020.
The driver also announced the creation of his charitable organization called the Erik Jones Foundation on Friday, with a three-fold mission of engaging children with reading, encouraging early cancer detection and promoting animal welfare. He threw out the first pitch at a Detroit Tigers game on Tuesday while visiting his home state ahead of this weekend’s race.
This story was originally published August 22, 2021 at 1:11 PM.
