NASCAR Cup Series: Joe Gibbs Racing would be silly to cut Erik Jones

If Joe Gibbs Racing end up cutting Erik Jones after the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season, it would be an extremely foolish move.

For pretty much the entire 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season, rumors have swirled about the future of the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and who might be driving that car after the 2019 season comes to a close.

Erik Jones, who has driven the #20 Toyota since he replaced Matt Kenseth at the four-car team ahead of the 2018 season, stated in early April that he and Joe Gibbs Racing were working on a contract extension and in late April that he was not worried about a contract extension with the team, and he recently stated that the two sides were “close” to reaching a contract extension.

Team owner Joe Gibbs recently hinted about Jones’s future as well.

Yet there has still been no official word on whether or not Joe Gibbs Racing will bring Erik Jones back for a third consecutive season next year, and with the team’s Xfinity Series superstar, Christopher Bell, patiently awaiting his chance to drive for the team in the Cup Series and having already re-signed with Joe Gibbs Racing for next season but not for a specified series, this has only caused more rumors to swirl.

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The fact that all three of Joe Gibbs Racing’s other drivers have won at least three races so far this season has further heated up these rumors.

But Joe Gibbs Racing would be nothing short of silly to cut the 23-year-old Byron, Michigan native at this point.

How Jones has responded to these rumors has been nothing shy of phenomenal. Yes, he is still searching for his second career Cup Series victory and his first since he won the July race at Daytona International Speedway last year by leading only the race’s final lap, but his recent performances have been stellar.

Jones has not finished outside of the top three in any of the last three races, and he is coming off of a season-high second place in this past Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway, a race he lost by only 0.341 seconds to teammate Denny Hamlin.

He has gone from two positions below the playoff cut line to four positions and a solid 39 points ahead of it over the course of the last three races, three races during which his average finish is 2.67.

Only three drivers have finished in the top three in more races than Jones has so far this season. These drivers are teammates Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., who share the series lead in victories with four each so far this year, and Team Penske’s Joey Logano, who sits atop the championship standings.

Yes, Bell is a great driver who deserves a shot in the Cup Series, particularly at Joe Gibbs Racing, sooner rather than later. The sentiment that Bell should be in the Cup Series right now is all but considered a fact in the NASCAR community as opposed to an opinion despite its official classification as the latter.

But Joe Gibbs Racing would be absolutely foolish to cut ties with their rising star who is already competing in the NASCAR Cup Series and who has recently come on at a very high level, and at a time when it seemed as though the pressure was intensifying and mounting against him at a rapid pace.

Even if they add Christopher Bell, they would gain nothing by fixing what isn’t broken and cutting Erik Jones, and they would further put themselves in a hole by allowing him to sign with a rival team given the improvements that he has made. He is at the level where he is only one small step away from becoming a perennial contender to win races. Once he starts to actually slam the door, look out.