WHEATLAND, Ind. -- Marcus Jones, driver and owner of the #55 Marcus Motorsports Ford in the ARCA Truck Series, suffered a huge loss Thursday night, August 2nd at around 11:40 PM when his race shop experienced a fire and literally burned to the ground in the matter of about an hour. There were no injuries reported. Jones at the time was out of town on a camping trip.

To make matters worse, the shop was also connected to his apartment and Jones also lost personal affects as well. “I’m in a little bit of disbelief right now. All of my memories are gone. I don’t have a picture of my daughter’s first taste of a birthday cake. I don’t have any record of my late dad and my’s last fishing trip together. Other than the hauler, a driving uniform and the clothes on my back, I have nothing left. We feel we put together a professional racing team, but also 56 years worth of collecting memories…I normally would’ve pulled the hauler into the shop but left it outside after the last race at Kil-Kare; but the trailer is empty and that’s kind of how I feel right now. This is probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever been through. You just don’t understand until you’ve been through it! I feel like I’ve been kicked in the teeth, but am going to try and not stay down!”

According to the Wheatland, Indiana resident, indications are anything that was inside the structure was not salvageable. As of now, the cause is still under investigation and according to unofficial reports, the blaze allegedly started in the apartment side of the building, but that has not been confirmed as of this time. Jones is waiting to be allowed inside to see if he can even retrieve a fire proof safe where some documents were kept but as of now heeded advice to leave town for a few days because, he was told, “if I keep looking at all of it, I’d go stir-crazy.

“We built the shop with firewalls, fire extinguishers on every corner, tried to think of every safety aspect we could – we also insured the operation and the trucks up and down the interstates, but it appears that for what we paid in insurance, we may not get enough back to even rebuild the shop! “For some of these teams who race on a small budget but don’t insure what they own or even take necessary steps to protect what they have by separating as much of it as they could, imagine what it would be like or how much it would cost if they lost it all and had nothing!”

The 56-year-old, who tied with Brandon Huff for runner-up in last year's ARCA Truck Series DJ Safety Rookie of the Year honors behind Shawn Szep, sits eighth in 2012 series points only five behind seventh place Steve Christman. He recorded his best series finish of fifth this June at Lake County Speedway in Ohio and had a best qualifying run of seventh at Kil-Kare and at Toledo, had his first “did not finish” since the middle of the 2010 season. During the winter, the father of five was elected to the Phoenix Management Group of Ohio LLC Board of Directors, or "PMG" as it is more commonly known, is the governing body of the ARCA Truck Series.

“I don’t want everyone’s sympathy or to feel sorry for me and I don’t want anything special. But I will say that the outpouring of support so far has been tremendous. I’ve had offers of trucks, parts, whatever, and even had (ARCA ruck Series General Manager) Tom Cumbow offer to put together a truck for me to drive at Lorian County (August 11th). I will be there as a Board Member, but as of now, I’m not sure what I’m going to do.

“But I will say this: from the minute I spoke with those in the series and then met these amazing people, everyone here has been like a family, and I feel there are some people that just don’t want to see that. From all of the people we’ve met from the top down, it seems like right now my family is now the series and all of the participants! I’m just proud to be a part of this family!

Jones also concluded by mentioning his people. “Darren Bailey, his wife Teresa Bailey, Jimmy Jones – I have the most amazing team in all of motorsports. They took a picture of what was left and sent it to me and on it they put: ‘Everything’s gone, but we’re not!’”

Jones, along with his father and family, created Jones and Sons, Inc. in 1970 in Vincennes, Indiana with anything to do with concrete, ready mix, cinder blocks. The day to day operation of the business http://www.jonesandsons.com is conducted by members of the family. Marcus Jones website is http://www.mmsteam55.com