One of the surprise success stories of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season has been that of Legacy Motor Club and Erik Jones, even though it got very little attention until earlier this month.
A runner-up finish at Michigan International Speedway, his best result since his Southern 500 win at Darlington Raceway in 2022, and a sixth place finish at Pocono Raceway quietly vaulted the driver of the No. 43 Toyota into the provisional 16-driver playoff field, even after he had entered Michigan without a single finish of higher than 10th all year.
A 20th place finish in the inaugural race on Naval Base Coronado was enough to keep him there. It was his seventh straight top 20 result, and as we've seen this year, consistency is truly the name of the game when it comes to the new playoff format.
Jones only finished 23rd in Sunday's race at Sonoma Raceway, matching his worst result since his season-worst finish of 34th at Circuit of the Americas (COTA), another road course, in early March.
Erik Jones drops out of NASCAR playoff picture
He entered that race 14th in the point standings, 10 points above the cut line. Now he finds himself below the cutoff.
He fell behind RFK Racing's Ryan Preece and Team Penske's Austin Cindric, who already occupied the final two provisional playoff spots before finishing eighth and 13th, respectively.
They still do occupy those two spots, because Trackhouse Racing's Shane van Gisbergen vaulted ahead of them and Jones with his second victory of the year.
Van Gisbergen pit before the end of stage one and stage two to gain track position, and he still managed to score stage points in both stages. As a result, he wrapped up the race with 63 points, including 55 for the victory itself.
He shot up to 14th in the standings and is now 36 points above the cut line after entering the afternoon five points below it.
Jones is now 12 points behind Cindric for the 16th and final spot, with Preece just one point ahead of Cindric.
There are eight races remaining on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular season schedule, including Chicagoland Speedway's first Cup race since 2019. The eero 400 is set to be shown live on TNT beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, July 5. Don't miss the first race of the second half of the season!
