DELRAY, DE — With a compression fracture in his lower back keeping him out of the race at Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday, Erik Jones made an effort to keep his thoughts about someone else operating his car to a minimum.
Two days after his devastating crash at Talladega Superspeedway, he was informed by the doctors that he would not be able to race this week, and he essentially accepted that fate. Until he arrived at the track on Saturday morning to assist the Legacy Motor Club team and stand-in driver Corey Heim, he didn’t believe it would really affect him.
Jones remarked at the track on Saturday, “It’s tougher when you get here and you see your suits hanging in the closet.” “You wake up on practice day and know you don’t get to put those on.”
Jones is the first driver in the Next Gen car to have a back injury this year and the first to have to withdraw from a race due to an injury. NASCAR took major action to make the car absorb more of the energy in an accident than the driver after the first year of the Next Gen car had drivers demanding change.
The general concern that accompanies any driver injury was more of a stir than the Jones injury itself.
“We probably don’t have a good one reason why the injury happened yet, … but overall, I’m standing here talking to you,” Jones stated.
With Kansas this coming weekend, Jones intends to return as soon as possible to his Legacy Motor Club No. 43 car. Further scans are planned for this week, and he described his compression fracture as “mild”. The week following Kansas is Darlington, one of his finest tunes.
“Darlington is definitely a goal, for sure, at the latest to be back,” Jones stated. “Obviously, I would want to return to Kansas the next week. We’ll do more scans to monitor the back’s healing process and make sure it’s mending well and according to the patient’s wishes.
“And again how I’m feeling to every day — as long as I’m feeling better and better, I feel like I can get in and do some simulator work, get some motion on my back and see how it feels.”
Other than walking, there isn’t much he can do for his rehabilitation.
“I’ve been taking obviously some supplements, trying to get the bones strong and drawn back as quick as I can,” Jones stated. “Rest is a big part of it. We’ll have to wait and see.”
Erik Jones discusses his injuries, accident, and missed races.
Co-owner of Legacy and seven-time Cup winner Jimmie Johnson assured the team that they would exercise caution over Jones’s return date.
“We will go through the right steps and make sure that Erik is truly ready when he gets back in the car,” Johnson stated. “Driving is one aspect of it, but going through another significant impact and crash, that is something that we have to be mindful of.”
Regarding how he suffered a broken back, Jones stated that the automobile was still owned by NASCAR authorities at their Research and Development Center. He said that his accident’s statistics matched Ryan Blaney’s from last summer at Daytona.
According to Blaney, the crash recorded a G-force of 70Gs. Blaney escaped harm. Blaney is slightly shorter than Jones by a few inches.
“There’s some stuff we got to dive into looking at seats, compared to myself and Ryan about what the difference is there,” Jones stated. It goes without saying that our bodies are unique. Thus, the next step is to attempt to determine that.”
Blaney announced that Jones’ collision and Blaney’s crash will be compared through study, with assistance from Jeff Burton, a former Cup racer and leader of a driver support group.
“They’re going to dig into what’s different with my seat angle and his seat angle, maybe some belts — everyone is a little bit different in how they like everything,” Blaney stated. “They want to examine the differences and see if there is anything we can learn from them to go forward. Can we improve the cars? is the most important question. They have things under control.
Jones was discharged from the infield medical center rather soon following his Talladega crash. When he later went back to the care facility, an x-ray revealed a chip in one of his lower back vertebrae.
“I’ve never broken a bone in my life, so I didn’t even know what that would feel like,” Jones stated. “I felt better after getting out of the automobile by myself. Adrenaline is obviously flowing, and I’m still really excited.
“When I arrived at the care facility, I informed them that I was experiencing back pain. As usual, they touched and prodded all over me. I told them again that it felt like a strain in my muscles and that everything felt OK. I got up and started moving around after that. I entered the care facility on foot. I felt wonderful when I stood up to go.”
Then he was entering and exiting his camper.
“I went back to the motorhome, my wife, Holly, saw me getting in and out and suggested highly I take a trip back to the care center and ask them again — and tell them really how bad the back hurt because I probably didn’t let on the first time how bad it was bothering me,” Jones explained.
Regarding Erik Jones’ injuries, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, and Kyle Busch
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