Coons was introduced to racing at the age of five by his father, Jerry Sr., driving quarter midgets. By his early teens, in the late 1980s, he was racing midget cars in and around Arizona at venues including Manzanita Speedway, Raven Raceway, and El Paso Speedway Park. In 1987, he finished second in Arizona USAC Midget points with one win at the Pima County Fairgrounds. In 1992, he was named track champion at El Paso Speedway Park, compiling 475 points across nine races.
Coons relocated from Arizona to Indianapolis in 1998 and joined CED Motorsports, stepping up to a more regular national schedule. That year he made his first USAC Silver Crown appearances, including the Sumar Classic at the Terre Haute Action Track and Eldora Speedway's Four Crown Nationals. His first USAC Sprint Car win arrived in 1999, driving the CED Motorsports number 7c in the Friday preliminary night of the Terre Haute National Open at the Terre Haute Action Track.
An earlier highlight came at the 1996 Belleville Midget Nationals, where he won the Friday night preliminary feature over Billy Boat while driving for car owner Rusty Kunz, catching wider attention in the USAC community. He won the same Friday night prelim again in 1998.
Coons ran part-time in USAC Sprint Cars until 2005, when he joined Hoffman Dynamics in the number 69 car and finished seventh in the standings with a win at Manzanita Speedway.
He won back-to-back USAC Midget championships in 2006 and 2007, and was named National Midget Driver of the Year in 2007. In 2008, he completed a remarkable double by winning both the USAC Silver Crown and Sprint Car championships in the same season — achievements that brought him into the exclusive USAC Triple Crown club. That same year he was recognized as National Sprint Car Poll Driver of the Year.
At the close of the 2017 season, Coons held 19 USAC Midget wins, 17 USAC Sprint Car wins, and 7 USAC Silver Crown wins across his career.
Coons accumulated an exceptional record at Eldora Speedway's Four Crown Nationals — a single-night event that runs all three USAC classes — winning in Silver Crown (2007 and 2014), Sprint Cars (2009), and Midgets (2010), making him one of a tiny number of drivers to have won all three Crown races at that event.
He is a two-time winner of the Hoosier Hundred at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Speedway (2011 and 2012) and a two-time winner of the Hulman Classic at the Terre Haute Action Track (2010 and 2013).
At the Belleville Midget Nationals, Coons took the overall win in 2005, 2007, and 2012. In 2012, the victory was worth $12,000 and came with a renewed National Midget Driver of the Year title.
Between 1994 and 2018, Coons made seventeen main event starts at the Chili Bowl Nationals. His best results were a fourth-place finish in 2009, 2010, and 2016.
In 2005, Coons made a one-off appearance in the IRL Infiniti Pro Series at Nashville Superspeedway, driving for Hemelgarn Racing. He started tenth and finished ninth in what remained his only foray outside USAC's core open-wheel categories.
USAC Triple Crown Champion (Midget, Sprint Car, Silver Crown)
USAC Midget Champion: 2006, 2007
USAC Silver Crown Champion: 2008
USAC Sprint Car Champion: 2008
National Midget Driver of the Decade, 2010
National Midget Driver of the Year, 2007, 2012
National Sprint Car Poll Driver of the Year, 2008
Belleville Midget Nationals winner: 2005, 2007, 2012
Coons belongs to a very small group of drivers who have mastered all three legs of USAC's open-wheel ladder simultaneously. His decades-long career, spanning quarter midgets in Arizona to national championships in Indiana, exemplifies the depth of talent and adaptability required to compete at the top of American open-wheel short-track racing. The Four Crown Nationals sweep across all three series classes at Eldora Speedway stands as a singular measure of his breadth as a racing driver.