Erik Jones has 'no intention' of leaving Joe Gibbs Racing

Jones, 23, received only a one-year extension last year, which means he’ll have to go through the process of renegotiations again this season.

There is one significance difference, however. Jones is not alone – there are several high-profile Cup Series drivers whose contracts expire, or like Jimmie Johnson are stepping away from fulltime competition.

The added options have not swayed Jones as to where he would like to continue his Cup Series career.

“For me, I think number one I’ve had a great relationship with JGR for now the last three years, four if you want to count my year at Furniture Row (Racing). I’ve had a great time and great relationship with them,” Jones said.

“We’ve been able to win the last couple of seasons. I have no intention of leaving my role there. I’d love to continue that. But it is definitely a crazy year. There’s a lot of things happening. There’s a lot of things in motion, I guess, already probably for people, not really for me.

“There’s no pressure from the outside, in my opinion. It’s pressure from me trying to perform. I want to run well. I want to win races. I think if you can do that, the rest of the things are going to come with it, what you want to do.

“You’ll have as many choices as you want. Hopefully that’s the case.”

Jones kicked off the 2020 season with an unexpected victory in last Sunday’s non-points Busch Clash. It was unexpected in the sense that Jones was driving a badly damaged car to victory while being pushed by his teammate, Denny Hamlin, who was a lap down.

So far in his Cup career, Jones has two victories in 111 starts. He’s been in position to win many times but would like to be able to capitalize those opportunities more frequently.

“We want to win more. We want to be able to go out and win three, four races a year. That’s our goal,” he said. “That’s what our teammates do. That’s what we want to do. I know we can improve.

“I know there’s a lot of things we can get better. Chris (Gayle, crew chief) and I have looked at what we can do better from our ends. I think we’re going to work on it, do the best we can.

“Hopefully we can go out and win a few this year.”