During the NASCAR test at Phoenix last month, Jones said it was interesting because Johnson was driving his own car.

 During the NASCAR test at Phoenix last month, Jones said it was interesting because Johnson was driving his own car.

“I had a lot of chats quickly with him in between runs … talking about what he thought of the car, how he was feeling and what he was feeling, if we were kind of doing the same stuff in the race car,” Jones said.“The competition side is something I really want to be able to dive in with him on, get his perspective and outlook on. It’s going to be cool to kind of dive in some more with him … to see kind of what his vision is as far as the competition side.”

On the competition side, NASCAR’s 75th anniversary marks the first time since its creation that the name “Petty” is not on a team in the Cup Series. However, Jones says the desire to pay homage to the legacy of the No. 43 brands remains. When Jones began driving the No. 43 in 2021, the team still carried the name Richard Petty Motorsports.

“There is still a lot of homage to pay there to ‘The King’ and, obviously, The King is still around and at the race track every week,” Jones said. “I think there is an important legacy there that we want to honor on the 43. There’s no sense of moving on from that or trying to do something different. I think we know what the (No.) 43 means to a lot of different people in the sport.“There’s been a handful of guys since ‘The King’ drove it last in the early ‘90s, but I want to be able to hopefully make my own mark in it, too.”