A promising future plagued by a tough season followed by an exit no one saw coming at the end of the year. This seems like the narrative of the story of Kyle Busch at Joe Gibbs Racing, which it is. But interestingly, this is also the storyline of another former JGR driver.

It was Erik Jones, who recently opened up on the events leading to his JGR exit in a conversation with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The Petty GMS driver began by describing the year 2020 as “a bad year,” a year of struggle in which nothing was working out for them.

“We weren’t really in contention to win races, weren’t leading laps,” Jones revealed, “I was led to believe we were going to resign, make some changes for next year, and give it a go.”

“I had no major inclination that I was not coming back.” 

The surprise phone call that sealed Erik Jones’ future at Joe Gibbs Racing

Then, the #43 driver revealed the phone call from Coach Gibbs, which was uncharacteristic for the man.

“I’m in the shower, I get out, I get a missed call from Joe Gibbs, and I’m like, ‘Weird time for Joe to call.’ Like Joe always calls at the same time, like Joe calling at that time, there’s something not good,” he recalled.

Right after this call, Jones gets a call from Allan Miller, which made his gut feeling even worse.

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“I get on the phone with Allan, I’m sitting there and he’s kinda sugarcoating it a little bit at the start. He’s like, ‘I got to tell you…JGR said you’re not coming back’, I’m like, ‘Huh? What do you mean?’, and he’s like, ‘They’re going in a different direction,'” he revealed.

“I hang up, I call Joe back, same thing, same typical, ‘you’re-getting-fired’ conversation.”

Kyle Busch opens up on heart-crushing final season at JGR

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In a recent episode of ‘Race for the Championship,’ Kyle Busch opened up on the “disappointing” side of the way things lined up for him at JGR this season concerning his future.

“Something that is so disappointing to me, and so hurtful about this whole situation with JGR, is they were like family,” Busch said. “For 15 years, Joe had my back in the stupidest of moments that Kyle Busch was.”

Busch claimed it was almost like something “just flipped and gone”, leaving his story at Joe Gibbs Racing seeming completely different from what it actually was.

“It’s like nothing I’ve ever been a part of,” he added.

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