Clay Jones — Driver Profile
Car: No. 1J | Team: Markham Enterprises | Manufacturer: Chevrolet Status: Full-time LMSC | Hometown: Goldsboro, North Carolina | Age: 39
Career Highlights
Clay Jones is one of the oldest and most experienced competitors in the 2026 CARS Tour Late Model Stock field — a weekly track champion who spent the better part of two decades racing at North Carolina short tracks before stepping up to the touring level.
Born February 18, 1987, Jones built his racing career at Wake County Speedway in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he became one of the winningest Late Model Stock drivers in the track's modern history. He won track championships in 2014, 2017, 2019, and 2022, and capped his 2022 campaign with the NASCAR Weekly Series North Carolina State Championship — winning the season finale from fifth on the grid with a dramatic two-laps-to-go pass to clinch both the race and the title.
Jones' path to the CARS Tour came through the CARS Super Late Model division, where he scored two top-five finishes and a fifth-place championship result in 2015. He transitioned to the Late Model Stock Tour in 2023, making select starts to learn the tracks and competition level that separate weekly racing from touring-series competition.
At Goldsboro, Jones is part of a broader Wayne County racing community that has produced generations of short track drivers. His father serves as his spotter on race weekends — a family operation in the truest short track tradition. He also won the inaugural Late Model Stock race at Carteret County Speedway in 2026, adding another first to a career built on regional track mastery.
For 2026, Jones campaigns the No. 1J Chevrolet for Markham Enterprises in the CARS Tour LMSC division. His touring-level experience remains limited — nine starts across three seasons with one pole position — but his weekly track record makes him a driver who knows how to win races at short ovals. The challenge is translating that knowledge to a field where the competition level is the highest in Late Model Stock racing.