Moreover, Jones has caught the significance of the subtleties in the class. "Engine builders work hard. Everything is so close. If you pick up five-thousandths [of a second], you could jump from, say, 12th to seventh on the sheet," he said. "You try to get that slight advantage. It's very, very sensitive. [A] 20-horsepower [gain] doesn't sound like a lot, but it's huge."
He also has developed a knack for marketing and understands that the family business and on-track performance fit like a hand in his Impact Racing glove. He learned that early on and was reminded last summer when he and his dad tested with a Ford Mustang they had built and installed in it a Steve Schmidt motor. They drove it at Route 66 Raceway at nearby Joliet and at Cordova. Then they took it to Martin, Michigan, where their hired driver, Frank Gugliotta, won the rain-delayed IHRA final.
"Buy and sell, that's what we do," he said. "We had a Grand Am Top Sportsman car we built. It was a turnkey car. We raced it some. Brian Folk was the No. 1 qualifier at Martin in it, then the next week somebody bought it. We also took in a Pro Stock Truck in trade, a red Dodge Dakota, and it went 8.60 a dozen times. It was an easy ride, but someone bought that. That's the business."
That's also what has caused RJ Race Cars and the "Jones Boys" to engage with the NHRA even more these days. Although the company is active in IHRA racing, Rickie Jones said, "It's cool to race in NHRA. That's where the mainstream marketing is. It was in the best interest of the business to come over to NHRA." On a normal day at the shop or at the races, Jones said, "we have to take care of thousands of customers every day."
He said his family's parting with Gugliotta carried no hard feelings, as the loveable "Flying Meatball" teamed once again with car owner Bob Yoak in IHRA competition and has been participating in NHRA's Pro Stock class as crew chief for up-and-coming Maryland pal Justin Humphreys.
Rick Jones builds cars for NHRA points leader Greg Anderson and his teammate, Jason Line, and he has a longtime friendship and working relationship with Mark Ingersoll, Allen Johnson's crew chief.
"Dad and Mark have been friends for a long time," Rickie Jones said, "and everywhere Ingersoll goes, you'll se RJ Race Cars." He said they're constantly sharing new chassis design ideas. "They test NHRA products," he said of Allen and Roy Johnson's J & J Racing, "and we test IHRA products. We test everything. That way we learn twice as much."
Rickie Jones is parlaying all that information into a strong foundation for his driving and building career. It's not without some expert help from crew members Rick Varnold, the clutch specialist, and Steve Day, who "does a little bit of everything -- swaps tires and changes valves and the rear end" and happens to be his future father-in-law. Fiancee Angel Day helps Bonnie Jones with team logistics, marketing analysis, and catalog pricing and updating.
They probably order the pizza, too.