Erik Jones called his back injury “mild” Saturday morning at Dover Motor Speedway, where he will miss the first NASCAR Cup Series race of his career.
Jones is sidelined from competition with a compression fracture in a lower vertebra. The Legacy Motor Club driver was injured last weekend during a frontal impact crash in Turn 3 at Talladega Superspeedway and it is week-by-week as to when he will return to the seat of the No. 43 Toyota Camry.
“To be honest, right now, I’m feeling pretty good,” Jones said. “Any driver wants to hop back in, and I’d love to say I could get back in and do it right now. Is that possible? I don’t know. I don’t know how I’d truly feel in the car, especially at a place like Dover. I get pretty sore at night and when I’m not moving around. My range of motion is just a bit limited right now, but the soreness has faded away; it was pretty bad early in the week and was just kind of resting.
“Yesterday and today, I’m starting to feel better and better. There are certain motions and things that cause a lot of pain. The thing that’s probably the worst is it’s allergy season and when I’ve got 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’s week-to-week. My injury, fortunately, is on the mild side, so we’ll just have to see how it’s healing up (and) how I’m feeling. Again, I’m feeling better and better every day.”
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Jones is not wearing a back brace. His progress is being monitored on how it’s healing and what is seen on X-ray as Jones works with a neurosurgeon in Charlotte.
Earlier this week, Jones spent time with NASCAR at the R&D Center looking over the car, which NASCAR took from Talladega for further evaluation. Jones said it was similar to what Ryan Blaney experienced in his front impact at Daytona International Speedway last summer.
“The Gs and the impact were similar to that and (I’ve) been talking through with NASCAR what has to get fixed to see an improvement there,” Jones said. “Obviously, Ryan was uninjured in his, and I had an injury in mine. So, we’re going through and figuring out what the difference is there, but it was similar to his wreck.”
In a testament to safety, Jones believes his injury could have been a lot worse.
“I think NASCAR has gotten some of a bad rap this week; the Next Gen car gets a bad rap,” he said. “I think the car did its job. Unfortunately, this injury that we’ve seen in the Truck Series and obviously that is the old-style car and this is the first time we’ve seen this injury in this car. But it’s an impact that has caused that injury before. Fortunately, it’s not worse.”
Corey Heim, the reserve driver for Legacy Motor Club and 23XI Racing, will drive the No. 43 car this weekend at Dover. Heim would be in the car next weekend at Kansas Speedway if needed.
Jones initially went to the infield care center at Talladega Superspeedway before being released and doing media. However, he later returned to the care center for attention before being transported to UAB University Hospital in Birmingham.
The events’ timeline brought questions about the procedures of the infield care center and Jones being released. But Jones said it was straightforward.
“It hurt when I crashed; I’ve never broken a bone in my life, so I didn’t even know what that would feel like,” Jones said. “I got out of the car on my own and I was feeling better. Obviously, adrenaline is going and I’m pumped up still. I got to the care center and told them what was wrong that my back was hurting, and they poked and prodded all over me as they normally do, and I said everything felt OK. And I told them multiple times it was feeling just like muscle strain to me.
“From there, I got up and I was getting around. Obviously, I walked into the care center. I got up to leave and was feeling good at getting released (and) I talked to a couple of nurses who saw me on the way out and said, ‘Hey look, if anything changes, just come right back.’ I think they were under the same impression — a lot of adrenaline, and they could tell I was hurting a little bit. By the time I got back to the motorhome after the interviews, I was in more and more pain as time was passing.”
It was after Jones changed clothes that he knew he needed to make a return trip to the infield care center. By that point, Jones was having trouble getting around. When back at the care center, an X-ray was taken that showed a potential problem and led to his being transported to the hospital.
Jones admitted it’s somewhat depressing to be at the track and not competing and it’s giving him a different perspective. He will be with his team for Sunday’s race and is taking the advice he got about using the time to reflect and “see where you are in life.”
