Erik Jones Dismisses NASCAR Fandom’s Unfair Old vs. New Cup Drivers Comparison: “We Worked Just as Hard”

NASCAR is just a sport like no other. They have seen the peak glory days and how it was a part of popular culture, and they are also now looking to transition into a modern era. Just because the history of the sport has served it well does not mean the current generation of drivers should be looked down upon. For the most part, drivers do agree with the fans on a number of topics related to racing. However, Erik Jones feels that the comparison made by traditional fans is just not fair.

For long, NASCAR has been pushing its agenda of attracting new fans to its sport. Become more relevant in the sporting scene and thus fuel the rise of a new generation of drivers. But somehow, it seems like nostalgia has taken on a deep-rooted bias in the minds of some fans. So much so that they discredit the hard work and their knowledge about the race cars. An argument that Erik Jones is not a fan of.

What ‘drives’ Erik Jones ‘nuts’?

The Legacy Motor Sports driver was speaking in an interview with Jeff Gluck from Athletic. In what was a creative yet engaging segment, Gluck put forth a total of 12 questions in front of Jones. One of which read along the lines of his opinion about NASCAR that is not shared by the fans. While most drivers would have a toned-down answer to such a tricky question, Erik Jones held no punches with his answer.

He replied, “The one I see a lot is they’ll post a picture of a guy from the mid-’80s, and I’ll go to the comments just to see what fans are saying, and 90 percent of them are like, “Ain’t nothing like these crybabies today out there.” Or “These boys today, they couldn’t hang with them.” It drives me nuts. It’ll be like Alan Kulwicki reading a set of plugs or something, and they’re like, “These guys today, they don’t even know what he’s holding in his hand.”

The former JGR driver went on all guns blazing, adding, “I would say 90 percent of the guys in the field grew up working on their own cars and doing maintenance on their cars, setting them up and doing all that. We worked just as hard to get to this point and be here as what those guys did. For sure it’s different now, but it’s not that much different where we’re like this gentrified group of drivers in the Cup Series who don’t know a thing about the car.”

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Despite all the pressure and expectations to live up to, Jones seems to have struck a balance in finding his goals for the upcoming season.

Success goes beyond the aspiration of winning races

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To say that racing in the Cup Series is a tough job would be an understatement. Given that the best talent across the country competes for a single win every weekend, it is indeed hard to quantify success for a driver who is void of wins. For most of the drivers, it is their aspiration to win that drives them and motivates them to bring out the best game. But for LMC #43, he has now taken a different approach, one that is viable and practical in the modern era of NASCAR racing.

Erik Jones explained his measure of success going forward. “Early in my career, it was 100 percent all about winning. If we weren’t winning, that was a failure. At that time in my life, I was probably scared of failure. I was worried about not winning and worried about not succeeding in Cup and making it in Cup. That has changed as I’ve gone through different teams and performance levels in my career.”

He went on to add, that he does not fear failure anymore. “The fear of failure naturally diminished through that, because I’ve been through a good chunk of failure in my life to this point. Currently, my measure of success is year-to-year improvement.”

With a decent start to the 2024 Cup Series campaign driving the new Toyota Camry, Erik Jones will be looking to build momentum and rake in some strong performances in upcoming races.