NASCAR driver Erik Jones will not return to Joe Gibbs Racing team next year

纳斯卡车手埃里克·琼斯明年不会重返乔·吉布斯车队

NASCAR driver Erik Jones and the Joe Gibbs Racing team announced Thursday that the current No. 20 driver would be parting ways with the organization after the season.

纳斯卡车手埃里克·琼斯(Erik Jones)和乔·吉布斯(Joe Gibbs)车队周四宣布，现任20号车手将在赛季结束后与该组织分道扬镳。

“We appreciate all Erik has done for Joe Gibbs Racing over the past several years,” team owner Joe Gibbs said in a statement. “He joined us as a teenager and has accomplished so much in his time here and we remain focused on the remainder of this season and earning him a spot in the playoffs.”

“我们感谢埃里克在过去几年里为乔·吉布斯车队所做的一切，”车队老板乔·吉布斯在一份声明中说。“他在十几岁的时候就加入了我们，在这里的时间里他取得了很大的成就，我们仍然专注于本赛季剩下的时间，并为他在季后赛中赢得了一席之地。”

The driver most likely to replace Jones in 2021 is Cup Series rookie Christopher Bell, who is losing his seat in the No. 95 Toyota Camry at Leavine Family Racing next year following the sale of his team by current owner Bob Leavine. Bell was confirmed as the new driver for JGR’s No. 20 Toyota Camry next season, according to a report by The Athletic Thursday evening, but the deal has not been officially announced.

2021年最有可能取代琼斯的车手是杯赛新秀克里斯托弗·贝尔，在他的车队被现任老板鲍勃·利文出售后，他将于明年在利文家庭赛车公司失去95号丰田凯美瑞的座位。根据田径报周四晚间的一篇报道，贝尔已被确认为JGR的20号丰田凯美瑞下个赛季的新车手，但这笔交易尚未正式宣布。

Both Jones and Bell are considered young talents who came up through NASCAR’s national series through the Gibbs-Toyota pipeline. Bell, 25, is a Toyota developmental driver who won the Truck Series championship with Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2017. He advanced to the Xfinity Series the following year driving for JGR full-time in the series until signing with LFR, which has a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing, for the 2020 season.

琼斯和贝尔都被认为是通过吉布斯-丰田管道在纳斯卡全国系列赛中脱颖而出的年轻天才。25岁的贝尔是一名丰田发展型车手，曾在2017年与凯尔·布希赛车运动一起赢得卡车系列赛冠军。次年，他进入了Xfinity系列赛，全职为JGR驾驶该系列赛，直到与LFR签约，LFR与乔·吉布斯赛车(Joe Gibbs Racing)有技术联盟，将在2020年赛季参赛。

Jones, 24, charted a similar path, winning the Truck Series championship in 2015 with Kyle Busch Motorsports before moving through the Xfinity Series full-time with JGR the following season, in which he won Rookie of the Year honors. In 2017, Jones joined the Cup Series driving for now-defunct Furniture Row Racing, and was named the Cup Rookie of the Year. He returned to JGR full-time in 2018.

24岁的琼斯也走上了类似的道路，他在2015年与凯尔·布希赛车运动(Kyle Busch MotorSports)一起赢得了卡车系列赛冠军，然后在接下来的赛季中与JGR一起全职参加了Xfinity系列赛，赢得了年度最佳新秀的荣誉。2017年，琼斯加入了现已停业的家具排赛车的杯赛系列赛，并被评为年度杯赛新秀。他于2018年全职回到JGR。

“Erik has been an incredible friend to Toyota throughout the last eight years,” a statement from Ed Laukes, vice president of Toyota Motor Marketing, said. “We’ve become close not only to Erik, but to his entire family. We’ve celebrated together, we’ve cried together and we’ve supported each other through it all. Unfortunately, the time has come that we have to part ways from a competitive standpoint.”

丰田汽车营销副总裁埃德·劳克斯(Ed Laukes)在一份声明中表示：“在过去的八年里，埃里克一直是丰田令人难以置信的朋友。”“我们不仅和埃里克走得很近，而且和他的整个家庭都走得很近。我们一起庆祝，我们一起哭泣，我们在这一切中相互支持。不幸的是，现在是我们必须从竞争立场出发分道扬镳的时候了。“。

Jones has made the playoffs in each of the past two seasons with JGR; In 2018, he won a race at Daytona, and in 2019, he won the Southern 500 at Darlington. Although Jones does not have an official race win this season, he won the non-points preseason Busch Clash earlier this year. He enters this weekend at Michigan International Speedway, his home track, ranked 18th in points, two places below the 16-driver cutoff for playoffs.

琼斯在过去两个赛季都在JGR打进了季后赛；2018年，他在代托纳赢得了一场比赛，2019年，他在达灵顿赢得了南方500强。虽然琼斯本赛季没有正式的比赛胜利，但他在今年早些时候赢得了非积分赛的布希冲突。本周末，他进入了密歇根国际赛道，这是他的家乡赛道，积分排名第18，比季后赛16名车手的分数线低两位。

“I greatly appreciate the opportunity that JGR provided me with over the last four years and I wish the team nothing but success and good fortune,” Jones said in a statement. “JGR gave me a solid foundation from which to go out and compete at the highest level and I look forward to building on that in the years to come.”

琼斯在一份声明中说：“我非常感谢JGR在过去四年里为我提供的机会，我祝球队成功和好运。”JGR给了我一个坚实的基础，让我能够走出去，在最高水平上竞争，我期待着在未来几年里在此基础上再接再厉。“