While most of us 20 year olds are studying American Lit or Chemistry (again), Erik Jones is currently racing for Joe Gibbs Racing in the number 20 car. He started racing at the age of seven, and it all went from there. When he was 15, he held off Kyle Busch to win the Snowball Derby - the kid had style. That next year he proceeded to beat Chase Elliott in the 2013 Snowball Derby earlier that year, and later Erik was signed to drive in the Camping World Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Joe Gibbs picked him up in 2014, and in 2015 he won his first Xfinity Series race. In 2016, he started racing full-time in the Xfinity Series, and will join the Sprint Cup Series in 2017.
Despite all of his awards and job titles, he is actually our age. He owns a condo, and has terrible time management - just like most of us. He stepped into adulthood almost as unprepared as we all were. He said after a few months of adjusting that his townhouse officially feels like home instead of feeling like he's sleeping in just another hotel room. He isn't much of a decorator, but every time his mom visits she adds new things to make it feel homier. When he has the luxury of being home and alone, which we can all imagine is very seldom, he likes playing his Xbox and catching up on Netflix. He doesn't have much time on his hands so he makes sure to thoroughly clean his place once a month. We all have problems with our time management so just imagine how difficult it is for him.
Most of the time he is either on the road or racing, and that doesn't leave him much time in between to learn how to cook or hang out with people he doesn't get to see often. He did however learn how to use a grill so his cooking is slowly improving. So make sure you know how to cook at least a little bit before you start living on your own. Erik said that one of the biggest adjustments to living on his own was that he had a lot of more responsibility to take on. He said that responsibility and time management were his biggest adjustments, but he still needs help with his clothes. Between laundry and shopping for new clothes - he needed a lot of help. He still doesn't sort anything. He just puts his laundry in the washer with some cold water, and he's good to go. So if anyone likes to do laundry, hit him up! All in all, I think he's doing pretty good. I mean he's 20, living on his own, and racing for NASCAR - that has to be a lot. It's too much for us to go to class, do our homework, and find time to sleep. He does so much more than the people his age.
Erik Jones - The college racer. He's something special. Win one for us all, dude!
