DOVER, Del.: Erik Jones gingerly sat down for his media availability at Dover Motor Speedway—which was anything but typical.
In eight years of full-time Cup racing, Jones has never missed a race. In 27 years of living, he had never even broken a bone.
But after suffering a compression fracture in a lower vertebra last Sunday during a vicious crash at Talladega Superspeedway, Jones was coming to terms with his new role inside of the Monster Mile media center—from weekly competitor to spectator and consultant to replacement driver Corey Heim.
“It is a unique perspective for me,” Jones said. “I’ve never missed a Cup race, and this is my eighth season. I’ve never had the chance to sit back and watch a Cup race in a long time now, and obviously never seen my team perform without me.
“You have to look the at the positives and at least I’ll be able to take a view of my team from a side that I’m not involved for a weekend at least and see how things look.”
Last Sunday at Talladega, Jones felt immediately pain inside the car after impact. While he was sore after leaving the infield care center, Jones performed the obligatory media commitments and returned to his motor coach. Not long after the race, he realized something was wrong.
“I talked to a couple of nurses on the way out, and they said if anything changes, just come right back because they were under the same impression—lot of adrenaline—and they could tell that I was hurting a little bit,” Jones said. “By the time I got back to the motor home, after the interviews, I was in more and more pain as time was passing.
“Got changed into my clothes, and knew I was going to have to go back. It really hurt, and I had some trouble getting around, so I went back right away and said there is probably more wrong than what I was letting on to you guys. It is really starting to cause me some pain, so then we made the decision to transport.”
Jones was taken to University of Alabama Birmingham Hospital following the race. He met with a neurosurgeon in Charlotte upon returning home to North Carolina. While his status for a return to racing is still uncertain, Jones said he’s “feeling pretty good.”
“As a driver, probably any driver, they want to just hop back in,” Jones said. “I would love to say that I could get back in and do it right now. Is that possible? I don’t know. I don’t know how I would truly feel in the car, especially a place like Dover. I get pretty sore at night, and when I’m not moving around.
“My range of motion is a bit limited right now, but the soreness has faded away. It was pretty bad earlier in the week, and I was just resting. By yesterday and today, I’m feeling better and better. There are certain motions that cause a lot of pain. The thing that is probably the worst – it is allergy season, and when I have to sneeze, that hurts pretty bad, but other than that – sitting here right now, talking, I feel pretty good.
“As far as coming back, I think it is week-to-week. My injury is fortunately, on the mild side. So we will just have to see how it is healing up, how I’m feeling – again, I’m feeling better and better every day.”
Jones will meet with doctors again next week. Although his health is his main concern, Jones also wants to understand the mechanics of what sidelined him after the wreck.
“I went to NASCAR and looked at the car on Tuesday or Wednesday,” Jones said. “The wreck was really similar to Ryan Blaney’s at Daytona last summer. The g’s and the impact were similar to that, and kind of talking it over with NASCAR on what has to get fixed to see an improvement there.
“Obviously, Ryan was uninjured in his, and I had an injury in mine, so trying to figure out what the difference is there, but it was real similar to his wreck.”
In a season that was on average worse than Jones previous seven, with just one top 10 and no laps led in the first 10 races, 2024 continues to be a challenge for the driver of the No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota.
On Saturday, he was preparing for Heim climb into his car for practice and qualifying at the Monster Mile—and all Jones could do was watch.
“It is definitely more challenging than I thought, waking up this morning, to be honest and getting ready for today and realizing that you are not getting in the car,” Jones said. “You see the suit, it’s hanging up, that’s tough.”
Heim qualified the No. 43 Toyota 32nd for his NASCAR Cup debut. He’s performing double duty between the Xfinity and Cup Series this weekend at Dover.
“I feel like we had a productive practice session here at Dover,” Heim said. “I think I definitely warmed up to the car the longer I went. A lot of things connected the way I anticipated them to. It was definitely on the free side during practice, but it was just about getting comfortable and situated in this car.
“I’m glad to be here, filling in for Erik– he seems to be feeling a lot better. Proud to be here with Legacy Motor Club and Toyota Racing, and we will try to get better for the race.”
Jones is currently 20th in the Cup standings. Before his accident at Talladega he had been running at the finish of the first nine races.
A friend of Jones’ texted him and suggested he use this time as an opportunity “to reflect and see where you are in life.”
“Yeah, it’s not where we want to be as far as the season yet, and where our team and our cars have been,” Jones said. “It is unfortunate to continue that process to get better. I want to be in that, but right now, I’m just trying to find the positives.
“We can take at least a week and see what the group looks like from the outside, watching in. You can see that advice from people around you – it is going to be interesting to see for myself this weekend.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
