Jones's preliminary racing efforts were focused on go-karting. He progressed to oval races at Ascot Park, as his father had done decades earlier, then moved into USAC-sanctioned events. In 1986 he entered the USAC West Coast Midget category, earning the rookie of the year title. Alongside USAC competition he began racing in IMSA GT, contesting the GTO and GTU classes with Clayton-Cunningham Racing in Mazda RX-7 vehicles. A partial season in both classes left Jones fourteenth and twenty-seventh in the respective standings; 1988 was nevertheless highlighted by a podium in a GTU race and a victory in a world championship sprint car race in Auckland.
Before the end of the decade Jones switched to the American Racing Series with its turbocharged Buick formula cars, scoring a victory at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course to finish sixth overall. That same year he was suspended for thirty days from USAC competition after deliberately colliding with a competitor's vehicle.
Jones returned to the American Racing Series in 1990 with the same team and March/Buick package but failed to win. His 1991 season began in GTP, running the 24 Hours of Daytona for Dan Gurney and his All American Racers squad in a Toyota-powered Eagle HF90. In the American Racing Series that year he scored two victories in twelve races — both on street circuits in Toronto and Denver — finishing third in the standings. He also participated in an ice race before year's end.
In 1992, Jones joined Gurney's team for a full IMSA GTP season in the brand-new Eagle MkIII. As a rookie in prototype racing, Jones finished fourth in points with two wins, though he was outclassed by his more experienced teammate, Juan Manuel Fangio II, who took the series title. All American Racers retained Jones for 1993; he and Fangio swept the championship and vice-championship positions in IMSA's GTP category, with Jones trailing Fangio. Jones claimed the season-opening 24 Hours of Daytona alongside co-drivers Mark Dismore and Rocky Moran. Later in the season he set a track record at Lime Rock Park with a lap of 43.112 seconds, which stood as the fastest lap ever recorded there as of 2024.
Jones dipped into NASCAR Winston Cup action during periods that did not conflict with sports car commitments. He qualified for six of eleven races he entered, collecting a top-ten finish at Watkins Glen International in the No. 9 Ford for Melling Racing. He also contested the Chili Bowl in 1993 and many midget races in 1994, often alongside his brother Page. In the USAC Silver Crown Series event at IRP he finished second behind Mike Bliss from pole position.
After a first stock car win in a Winston West event at Phoenix International Raceway, Jones joined the newly established NASCAR SuperTruck division for its 1994–1995 exhibition races. Racing seven times for Scoop Vessels he took two victories (at Mesa Marin and Phoenix), two second places, and two thirds. For the 1995 official Truck Series season Jones secured the ride — originally held by his brother Page, who was recovering from a midget crash — but scored just two top-ten finishes in thirteen starts.
With Toyota joining CART officially for 1996, Jones was hired by All American Racers to drive the Eagle MK-V Champ Car for an abbreviated season beginning at the Milwaukee Mile. In his second CART race, at the Belle Isle street course, Jones finished ninth — the first points ever scored by a Toyota-powered car in CART competition. He continued through 1998, scoring points at only three other races.
In 1999 Jones switched to Patrick Racing, joining team founder Pat Patrick. With better equipment he produced four consecutive points-scoring finishes from Long Beach to Gateway, including a career-best runner-up result at Nazareth Speedway, plus further top-ten finishes at Toronto and Chicago.
Jones made a full-time switch to NASCAR, focusing on the Busch Series rather than the premier Cup division. He substituted for Robby Gordon at the Coca-Cola 600 in 2000, driving the No. 13 Burger King Ford for Gordon while Gordon participated in the rain-delayed 2000 Indianapolis 500. Jones's Busch season started with BACE Motorsports in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo; after no result better than twenty-fourth place in seven races, he was released and signed by David Ridling, improving to a seventeenth at Loudon and a top ten at Watkins Glen — a race Jones believed the team "should have won". He returned to Watkins Glen for one of two Winston Cup races that year, qualifying twenty-first for Felix Sabates and SABCO Racing as a substitute for Ted Musgrave.
Jones signed with Phoenix Racing for the 2001 Busch Series season, qualifying third for the Daytona opener and scoring a best result of seventeenth at Atlanta Motor Speedway, before being replaced by Jimmy Spencer. After 2001's disappointment, Jones spent 2002 across several series. He attempted the Indianapolis 500 with Team Menard but suffered a neck injury in a practice crash during May and was ruled out for the month; his replacement, Raul Boesel, qualified the car on the front row. A. J. Foyt selected Jones to drive the No. 14 Conseco Pontiac at the Brickyard 400 — he failed to qualify — and at the SIRIUS Satellite Radio at the Glen, where Jones earned his best-ever Winston Cup result: fourth place. Foyt invited him back for the 2003 Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, but Jones again failed to qualify; Foyt did not invite him back.
Jones made his Craftsman Truck Series return at the 2003 season finale at Homestead–Miami Speedway and scored a top-ten finish for Jim Smith, who brought him back for Fontana and Phoenix in 2004, with another top ten in the latter. In May 2004 Jones made his debut in the Indianapolis 500 — the race his father had won in 1963. The rain-shortened race ended early for Jones in a crash. He also drove five NASCAR Nextel Cup races for Don Arnold's Dodge in 2004; further Cup attempts came in 2005 for MACH 1 Motorsports (failing to qualify for ten of fourteen attempts) and the Morgan-McClure Dodge on road courses.
In 2006, Beck Motorsports entered Jones in the Indianapolis 500 in the No. 98 Curb Records Panoz — a chassis widely regarded as inferior to the Dallara. Jones qualified on the final row and salvaged a nineteenth-place finish. His NASCAR Nextel Cup road course appearance at Sonoma in the Morgan-McClure Chevrolet ended in retirement from rear end failure. He moved to the Busch Series for the remainder of the season, racing for Mike Curb's team and for Johnny Davis Motorsports at Watkins Glen.
In 2007, Richard Childress Racing brought Jones for the Busch Series road course event at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Jones failed to qualify for the 2007 Indianapolis 500; his No. 40 car was painted to resemble his father's 1967 entry. He drove for Michael Waltrip Racing at the NASCAR road courses, finishing twelfth at Sonoma, and substituted in the Pennsylvania 500 for Robby Gordon Motorsports after Gordon was suspended. Jones made his final Nationwide and Truck starts in 2008 and continued as a road course ringer in Sprint Cup competition for Robby Gordon Motorsports from 2009 to 2011 in a start-and-park capacity.
In 2011, Rocketsports Racing hired Jones to race with Rocky Moran Jr. in their factory Jaguar XKR GT program in the American Le Mans Series. The car's performance was poor; no points were scored even in rounds with fewer than ten entrants, as the car frequently failed to complete 70% of the class winner's distance due to chronic mechanical issues. Rocketsports and Jaguar disbanded the team and moved to the LMPC class without either driver.
Jones joined the General Tire Trophylite Race Series off-road truck division for 2012 and won in Henderson, Nevada.
The 2013 season opened at the Chili Bowl, where Jones won the seventh heat race on opening night in his RFMS Racing entry but was eliminated before the main event. Later in 2013 he finished fourth in the inaugural Stadium Super Trucks race at University of Phoenix Stadium and continued to race in SST, finishing fourth in the standings with a win at Las Vegas.
From 2014 to 2017 Jones raced in Stadium Super Trucks on a part-time basis, winning at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in 2014, the OC Fair & Event Center's Sand Sports Super Show in 2015, and Texas Motor Speedway in 2017. In 2017 he also returned to NASCAR, racing in the Xfinity Series at Watkins Glen International in Chris Cockrum Racing's No. 25 car.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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