Jack Lawton (JacksFuture)

Jack Lawton was a Canadian NASCAR driver.

2024
Lawton made his Pinty's Series debut at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, driving the #17 for DJK Racing, after longtime driver DJ Kennington decided to focus on his ownership role within the team. Lawton qualified and finished 3rd, and ran as high as 2nd. At Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Lawton qualified 9th and raced up to 7th before a transmission failure forced him to park up. He then finished 2nd at Autodrome Chaudiere. At the first of two Pinty's Twin 125s at Canadian Motor Speedway, Lawton was a late contender to win. After bumping and spinning Nicky Kyler out of the way, Isadore Jenny clipped Lawton coming to the line, spinning him. Lawton eventually crossed the line in 8th place. In the second race, after winning the pole based on speed in Race 1, Lawton was shuffled out of the pack late due to a flat tire, finishing 11th. His best race would come at Toronto, where after starting 3rd, Lawton divebombed the two leaders, Nicky Kyler and Dominic Conway at the first corner, before losing the lead to Kevin Lacroix. On a late restart, Lacroix crashed out of the lead, giving Lawton a front row start. Lawton divebombed on leader Conway into Turn 3, taking the lead and scoring his first Pinty's Series win. Two weeks later at Edmonton, the now 21-year old Lawton took the lead and won late after leaders Lacroix and Conway made contact in the closing laps. At Ohsweken Speedway, Lawton struggled all weekend, qualifying 11th, but rebounded to finish 4th. He finished 5th at Trois-Rivieres and 6th when the Pinty's Series returned to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. A tire failure left Lawton 12th at Riverside. He finished 6th in the first Jukasa race before crashing out of the second race. Lawton would finish his debut season 5th in the standings with 478 points, and scored 2 wins, 1 pole, 4 podiums, 6 top 5's and 9 top 10's.

2025
Lawton's season started with a 3rd place start at Mosport, before a late engine failure with 2 laps to go dropped him from 4th to 21st. At Sunset Speedway, Lawton qualified 5th and finished 3rd. This was followed by a strong weekend at Autodrome Chaudiere, and despite contending for the lead late, a bad overtime restart left him in 4th. At Circuit ICAR, Lawton was the dominant car all day long. However, a pass by Linsay Warner left him on the outside for an overtime restart. Warner locked her brakes into Turn 1, forcing the pair wide. While Warner finished 4th, Lawton only finished 6th. At Canadian Motor Speedway, he fell back to 6th in the first race after starting 3rd. Mechanical issues in the 2nd race left him down 60 laps down in 11th. At this stage in the season, Lawton was 8th in the standings on 269 points, and was highly considered to be out of championship contention. At Edmonton, Lawton started 3rd, and made an early move on Nicky Kyler for 2nd, but Lawton stayed in 2nd the entire rest of the race. At Trois-Rivieres, he qualified 4th, before moving up to 3rd at the halfway point. Leaders Linsay Warner and Dominic Conway collided with a few corners to go, opening the door for Lawton to sneak through for his 2nd win of the season. Despite qualifying 11th at Ohsweken Speedway, Lawton would lead most of the race until the final restart. He would still finish 2nd. With multiple championship contenders finishing outside the Top 10, Lawton moved up to 3rd in points behind Nicky Kyler and Dominic Conway. Lawton would dominate the next two races at Mosport and Riverside, leaving him on 481 points heading into the finale at Jukasa. 2nd place driver Dominic Conway had 484 points, and points leader Nicky Kyler was on 491 points. Qualifying ended up with Kyler 3rd, Lawton 8th and Conway 11th. Lawton worked his way into the Top 5 by Lap 10, and was in 3rd by Lap 15, behind Kyler. After passing Kyler, a caution came out, under which Kyler came down pit road after a transmission issue. The team quickly fixed it and got him back out on track 2 laps down. Conway only ran 7th. Lawton took the lead on the ensuing restart from Jeptha Gracie. After multiple cautions throughout the race, Kyler got back onto the lead lap with 15 laps to go, running 12th. Conway had moved up to 6th by the late caution. Conway was spun on the restart, effectively ending his title hopes. Kyler moved up to 10th due to the crash. With 10 laps left, the race restarted. Lawton still held the lead through all the restarts. Kyler moved up to 8th with 4 laps to go, and Conway ran 13th, a lap down. With 3 laps to go, Conway crashed, bringing out a late caution and triggering an overtime restart. Lawton held the lead on the restart won while Kyler moved up to 6th before making contact with Gary Klutt, sending Kyler wide and down to 9th. Lawton would win the race and the championship by a single point over Kyler.

Truck Series
In 2025, he was granted a ride in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series with DJ Kennington Racing on a part-time basis. Lawton ran 7 races throughout the season with a best finish of 3rd at his home race at Mosport. His only DNF came at Talladega when he was caught up in a late big one.

Xfinity Series
Lawton ran part-time for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2025 in the #54, only missing out on weekends where he had to run Pinty's Series events, and a few other weekends, including his birthday weekend. In 2026 he was granted a full-time ride in the #20, and won in his first start in the car at Daytona. He won later in the season at Mid-Ohio, 3 days before his 23rd birthday. Lawton would miss the final 4, but would finish 5th in the standings. 2027 wasn't quite as strong as 2026, but Lawton was more consistent. He pulled off a clutch win at Las Vegas to lock himself into the Final 4. He'd finish 4th in the standings. However, 2027 would also see him make headlines after Las Vegas in March, as he was wrecked on the last lap while leading by Phillip Watson, who also failed to win after being passed by Carter McMurray for the win. Lawton exchanged words after the race with Watson before the latter used a slur against Lawton, resulting in a fight.

NASCAR Cup
The Canadian got his first taste of Cup Series racing in Gaunt Brothers Racing's #96 at Michigan in 2025. He would finish 29th, 3 laps down. He would return in 2027 driving part-time for Drive for Diversity Racing, a new team, piloting the #44 Toyota. He attempted to qualify for 6 races, including the Daytona 500, where he failed to qualify after getting caught up in a late wreck in the 2nd Duel. His best finish was 17th at Road America. In 2028 he joined full time, almost winning the Daytona 500 before being caught up in a huge last lap crash that saw Lawton end up on his roof. He only suffered minor injuries. He wouldn't grab his first Top 10 until Talladega in the Spring, finishing 9th despite being caught up in a few crashes. He scored 3 more Top 10s that year, including a strong 4th place at Watkins Glen. Lawton finished 25th in points.

In 2029, Jack had a way stronger season, achieving a best finish of 2nd at Talladega to Bubba Wallace. The season is most remembered for other moments involving Lawton, as he missed Sonoma due to illness, and suffered a horrific crash at Boston Motor Speedway leaving him with several injuries. However, he only missed 2 races before returning, and almost won his 3rd race back at Talladega before being taken out in a late crash.

In 2030, Lawton's season started rocky, with only 1 Top 10 in the first 12 races. He only scored 10 Top 10's throughout the year, with a best finish of 2nd at COTA in September. Lawton's best shot at winning that year came at Watkins Glen, where he won the first stage and was running 2nd to Ty Gibbs on the final lap. Lawton made a bold move at the second-to-last corner, but lost control and hit Gibbs, spinning both cars out. Lawton would finish 9th that day. He would end the season 18th in points.

In 2031, Lawton was promoted to Kyle Busch Motorsports, driving the #20. Lawton was involved in the big one in the Daytona 500, finishing 34th. Throughout the next 4 races, he finished 3rd, 7th, 6th and 5th. After only scoring 2 Top 10's in the next 10 races, Lawton picked up his momentum again over the summer, starting at Road America and the next week at Nashville. Lawton scored a 4th at Chicago and a 3rd at New Hampshire. At Michigan, 4 races before the playoffs, Lawton crashed out after losing a right rear tire. At Gateway, Lawton was looking set to win before faltering late and finishing 2nd to Chase Elliott. To add to his woes, the next race at Darlington, Lawton lost 20 points before the race due to multiple inspection failures. He finished 23rd in the race. At the regular season finale at Daytona, Lawton ran in the Top 10 for most of the race, but crashed late, ending his playoff hopes. He finished 10th at the playoff opener at Darlington, and finished 4th at COTA 2 weeks later. He scored 2 more Top 5's at Kansas and Talladega. At Martinsville, Lawton was a top 10 car most of the day, and after contact between Joey Logano and Carter McMurray racing for the lead sent McMurray spinning out of contention, Lawton was up to 3rd. He moved past Logano and William Byron on the final restart to take his first win. 2031 was Lawton's strongest season to date. He finished 17th in points with 1 Win, 9 Top 5's and 17 Top 10's.

2032 was a rough season for Lawton. He finished the Daytona 500 for the first time, finishing 12th. A strong race at Homestead was ruined by a late caution, knocking him down to 22nd after a late tire failure. Lawton scored his first Top 10 of the season at Las Vegas. At Race 5 at Sonoma, Lawton was leading in Stage 1 before on the last lap of the stage, he was hit by Phillip Watson, a lapped car, while slowing to make Turn 9. He crashed out and finished 40th. After that, he struggled for the rest of the Spring and didn't score another Top 10 until Race 16 at Road America, finishing 8th. He continued to struggle after that until Race 30 at Nashville Superspeedway, where he finished 9th. Lawton finished 12th the next week at COTA and was a contender to win at Talladega, winning Stage 1 and leading multiple laps, before spinning from the lead on the final lap after contact with Chandler Smith and finishing 21st. He scored his best finish of the season with 5th at the season finale at Atlanta. He scored 1 Top 5, 2 Top 10's and finished 25th in points.

Lawton was subsequently fired from KBM at the end of the season due to lack of performance. He joined Roush Fenway Racing in the #6 for the 2033 season.

2033 started with a 19th place finish in the Daytona 500. He finished 33rd at Sonoma the next week after spinning late. He finished 30th after an incident at Auto Club before crashing out at Las Vegas the next week. He would finish 29th at Phoenix before an engine failure ended his day at Homestead. A few weeks later at Martinsville, he would crash out again after being caught up in a wreck. He was once again a contender at Talladega, winning Stage 1 and leading 34 laps. He would lose out on the final lap to Austin Cindric, and finished 5th. Lawton scored his 2nd Top 10 at the Indy Road Course in May, finishing 9th. He would score a 7th place finish at Road America despite spinning late.

Reputation
While Lawton is generally well-liked by the majority of racing fans, he's also got a lot of hate for his sometimes aggressive racing style against certain drivers. Lawton has a simple motto that he will often race people the way they race him, whether it's clean or not. However this isn't always the case. In 2029, Lawton triggered several accidents in the Daytona 500, one of which would include him being taken out of the race.

Truck Series Results Xfinity Series Results NASCAR Cup Results