NASCAR Cup Driver Erik Jones Will Miss This Week’s Race at Dover

NASCAR Series Cup veteran Erik Jones will likely be on the sidelines on Sunday for the Wurth 400 at Dover International Speedway as the results of an harm sustained in a crash throughout this previous weekend’s race at Talladega.

The 27-year-old Jones from Byron, Mich., was concerned in a multi-car accident on Lap 157 throughout Sunday afternoon’s GEICO 500, the place has was checked and launched from the monitor infield care middle. Jones was transported to UAB University Hospital in Birmingham, Ala., for additional analysis and testing earlier than returning house to North Carolina on Sunday evening.

Once again house, specialists within the Charlotte space identified Jones with a compression fracture in a decrease vertebra.

Corey Heim—Legacy Motor Club’s reserve driver—will sit in for Jones within the No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE on Sunday at Dover.

Missing the race at Dover will snap a 262-consecutive race streak for Jones, courting again to the beginning of the 2017 season.

Jones is a three-time winner within the Cup Series, along with his final win coming at Darlington in 2022.

Heim, 21, is at present second within the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standings with one win (Circuit of the Americas) in seven begins. He races for the TRICON Garage entry within the Truck Series and within the Xfinity Series for Sam Hunt Racing. Heim has made 4 begins in Xfinity with a greatest end of fourth at Richmond.

This will likely be Heim’s Cup Series debut.

Corey Heim will likely be making his Cup Series debut on Sunday at Dover.

Jones plans to be at Dover this weekend, although there was no official timetable introduced for his return to the automobile. The workforce plans to request a medical waiver to maintain Jones eligible for the Cup Series Playoffs ought to he win a race this season or qualify for one of many 16 Playoff spots on factors.

“Erik’s long-term health is our number one priority,” mentioned Jimmie Johnson, co-owner of Legacy Motor Club. “It will be great to see him at the track Sunday and we intend to give him the time it takes to recover properly. I know Corey will do a great job behind the wheel for the Club. In the meantime, our thoughts are with Erik and his wife Holly—they have our total support.”

Mike Pryson lined auto racing for the Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot and MLive Media Group from 1991 till becoming a member of Autoweek in 2011. He gained a number of Michigan Associated Press and nationwide Associated Press Sports Editors awards for auto racing protection and was named the 2000 Michigan Auto Racing Fan Club’s Michigan Motorsports Writer of the Year. A Michigan native, Mike spent three years after school working in southwest Florida earlier than realizing that the land of Disney and limitless summer season was no match for the problem of freezing rain, potholes and lengthy, chilly winters within the Motor City.