Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. Up next is Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones, whose strong midseason surge has him on the cusp of a Chase spot with nine races remaining in NASCAR’s regular season.1. Do you typically arrive for things early, late or on time, and why?These days, I’m probably on the early side, like five minutes early. I value my time in a certain way, so I like to value others in the same regard as mine — that mine isn’t more important than theirs.Sometimes in our sport, especially maybe drivers, get a little bit on the side that their time is the most important, and I just don’t want to have that feeling.2. What is the pettiest thing that annoys you during a race weekend?Honestly, it’s probably going through the pre-race stuff. Like just going to the drivers’ meeting, the intros — it’s really monotonous. It’s my least favorite part of race day.I don’t mind so much the meet-and-greets anymore. Those used to drive me crazy, but I’ve gotten used to them and make the most of them now and try to have fun with it. But I always dread getting ready to go and having to go to the meeting and sit through the same thing every week.It’s a show now. It’s not even the full video that we watch anymore, so we know it’s kind of a gimmick thing. That’s what’s annoying.3. What is something you’ve learned to stop explaining to people?The unpredictability of my schedule. Sometimes I would sit there and kind of woe-is-me a little bit. Like, “I never know what my schedule is going to be, and it’s constantly changing, and I’m jealous of your schedule because at least you know every day you’re going in and doing the same thing every day and have a set schedule.”Then I realized they probably look at my schedule and think, “Well, that sounds pretty fun.” They have to go to work every day and do the same job every day, and that side can get pretty boring. I’ve lived that life, and it can get pretty boring.Having fun with what you’re doing and knowing that, especially as a driver, your job isn’t forever, and enjoying that time and the stuff that comes along with it, and making the most of those things and having fun with them, is the most important thing.4. If you could go back to the early days before you reached NASCAR, what is one different decision you wish you had made?When I was 13, 14, 15, 16 doing all that stuff, I got so fortunate with the choices I made that there wasn’t really one big choice. Well, there was one when I was about 16 with a Truck team.It was either drive for ThorSport at the time — I want to say a 10- or 12-race opportunity, as many races as I could run at my age — or drive Kyle (Busch’s) truck for five races.At the time, it was kind of like, “Well, 12 races is a lot more time to prove yourself, and five races isn’t much time to prove yourself.”We went to dinner with a friend of mine and kind of laid it all out. He said, “You can go drive for Kyle Busch?” I said, “Yeah.” And he said, “Why are you even talking about this?”I was like, “You know, you’re kind of right.” So I guess I made the right choice there.Kyle Busch congratulates Erik Jones (right) after Jones won the Southern 500 in 2019. (Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)5. What is it like to be in a debrief after a bad race?I know immediately when I make a mistake on the track. The nice thing is my team has gotten to know me pretty well now. I’ve been with this group long enough that they know if I make a mistake on my own, we really don’t talk about it a whole lot because they know I’ve probably been beating myself up already.When it’s the car, the team or a pit crew mistake, it’s not fun because you don’t want to sit there and bash people.But it’s not really bashing people. It’s laying the facts out and saying, “Hey, this is what I think we did wrong.”If somebody has a different opinion, they’ve got to voice that too. It can be a bit argumentative depending on the people. You get to know how everybody’s going to react when you say certain things, so you start to pick how you say them.