Jones began racing in quarter-midget competition at age seven and transitioned to stock cars at thirteen. He became the youngest-ever winner of the prestigious Oktoberfest race at LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway and won the Champion Racing Association's CRA All-Star Tour championship as a rookie in 2011. In December 2012, he held off Kyle Busch to win the Snowball Derby at Pensacola, one of late model racing's most coveted events.
Jones joined the ARCA Racing Series in 2012 through Kyle Busch Motorsports, becoming the first driver to compete in ARCA at fifteen years old. He notched his first ARCA win at Berlin Raceway in 2013.
In 2013, Kyle Busch Motorsports gave Jones select Truck Series starts. On November 8, 2013, at Phoenix International Raceway, he became the youngest driver ever to win in NASCAR's top-level competition to that point, taking the Lucas Oil 150 at the age of seventeen years, five months, and eight days.
Jones raced full-time in the Truck Series in 2015, his first age-eligible season for the championship. He won races at Iowa, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, and Texas Motor Speedway and claimed the series title, beating defending champion Matt Crafton and Tyler Reddick in a tightly contested points battle. His combination of wins and consistent finishes cemented his status as Toyota's most promising development driver.
Jones made his unofficial Cup debut in 2015 as a relief driver for the injured Kyle Busch and the suspended Matt Kenseth. He moved to Furniture Row Racing in 2017 to drive the No. 77 Toyota, his first full-time Cup campaign. He nearly won at Bristol that season, leading 260 laps before finishing second to Kyle Busch.
Jones transferred to Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 20 Toyota in 2018. On July 7, 2018, at Daytona International Speedway, he captured his first Cup Series win in the Coke Zero Sugar 400, surging from second to first in overtime after a push from Chris Buescher. His second Cup win came at Darlington in September 2019. Despite consistent performances, JGR declined to retain Jones after 2020.
Jones joined Richard Petty Motorsports and the No. 43 in 2021. After a difficult first season, he scored his third career Cup win in the 2022 Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington — giving the No. 43 its 200th all-time win and Petty GMS its first as an organization. He followed with a third-place finish at Kansas in 2023, Legacy Motor Club's first top-five result as a team. Jones signed a multi-year extension with Legacy Motor Club through 2025 and beyond despite the team's ongoing performance challenges.
Jones's win at Phoenix in 2013 as a seventeen-year-old reset NASCAR's age record for national series victories. His 2022 Darlington victory carried special historical weight as the No. 43's 200th win, the first for the iconic number since Aric Almirola's 2014 Daytona triumph. Jones is also known off the track for his book club, Erik's Reading Circle, which he launched on Facebook in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jones grew up in Byron, Michigan, and received his high school diploma in a ceremony held at Texas Motor Speedway in 2014. He married fellow racing driver Holly Shelton in August 2023.