Will Rodgers, the spotter for the No. 43 Legacy Motor Club team, was behind the wheel this weekend at Sonoma Raceway for the Xfinity race. Rodgers had expressed his desire to run a few races when he joined Erik Jones and the team ahead of the 2025 season, but that wasn’t their primary goal; instead, they focused on Cup Series racing. However, when the opportunity came knocking on his door to drive the No. 70 Cope Family Racing car, LMC didn’t stop him; rather, Jones switched roles and took over as spotter.

As it turns out, there was a gentleman’s agreement between Rodgers and Jones that if he were to go racing, the driver of the #43 car would back him up. And it is fair to say that Rodger’s 10th Xfinity Series start is going to be a special one for the entire team.

This idea stemmed from a bet when Jones told Rodgers that if he was ever to find a racing gig for himself, the No.43 driver would do the job of the spotter for him.“I guess Will, when we hired him on this year for the 43, he was, you know, wanting to do some racing of his own, and we had no problem with it, but kind of told him if he put something together that I would spot for him. And I kind of figured that would nearly, not that he wasn’t going to put something together, but it would never work out that I would spot for him. So he got to putting together this deal for the 70 car, which he spots for on a weekly basis.” Despite his promise, he never thought Rodgers would take the playful bet seriously, which is exactly what he did.

As far as Jones’ career is concerned, he never did the gig of a spotter as a professional in any races. He only did some small gigs as a second spotter, and this will be his first time spotting for a race car after a long break of 12 years. “I’m glad that Eric actually signed up to do it. I thought it would take a little bit more convincing, but I think I remember where we were, Kansas or something. And I said, ‘Hey, I think there’s a good chance I’m going to race Sonoma. So we’re going to do this thing. Right. And you said, yeah, I said, all right, I’m going to hold you to it.’ So here we are. I’m glad it came together and obviously thankful to Legacy Motor Club for letting me do this. Really enjoyed my new role at Legacy Motor Club spotting for Eric, uh, between him, me, and then Ben Bayshore. I feel like we make a really good team, uh, super chill.”

Well, the duo certainly worked in sync as Rodgers managed to get a respectable 16th-place finish after taking the green flag starting 36th on the grid. Both Jones and Rodgers had a blast and even joked on the radio. “We were joking on the radio, having a good time, and car remained good pretty much the whole time. The team made good adjustments, like I said, so I was feeling OK.”

Now Jones will get back to his primary duties for the Cup Series race and continue to mount a charge for the playoff spot. However, apart from the points battle, he will also compete against his teammate, John Hunter Nemechek.

Erik Jones faces off against teammate John Hunter Nemechek

Heading to the next road course challenge of the 2025 season, Erik Jones is among the top 8 in the in-season challenge. He is paired with his teammate John Hunter Nemechek, and in order to advance past round 3, he will have to overtake Nemechek at the Sonoma Raceway. Jones is unbothered by the rivalry with his teammate John Hunter Nemechek. “I would love to give you some big play on it. But it has been business as usual, For me, I’m always pretty good about letting the result be what it is. I never go into a race thinking about how I want to run or how I want to finish. I run the best race I can run and then hope the result is going to come with that,” Jones said on Saturday at Sonoma.

He did mention that things might be different if Nemechek is the car in front of him on the last lap, things might be different. Jones wouldn’t mind using his bumper for the chance to win $1 million. However, the big picture for him will be to collect enough points to track that payoff position. Cutting the 50-point deficit would be the primary objective for the #43 team in the Wine Country.