NASCAR Series Cup veteran Erik Jones will be on the sidelines on Sunday for the Wurth 400 at Dover International Speedway as the result of an injury sustained in a crash during this past weekend’s race at Talladega.
The 27-year-old Jones from Byron, Mich., was involved in a multi-car accident on Lap 157 during Sunday afternoon’s GEICO 500, where has was checked and released from the track infield care center. Jones was transported to UAB University Hospital in Birmingham, Ala., for further evaluation and testing before returning home to North Carolina on Sunday night.
Once back home, specialists in the Charlotte area diagnosed Jones with a compression fracture in a lower vertebra.
Corey Heim—Legacy Motor Club’s reserve driver—will sit in for Jones in 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, dating back to the start of the 2017 season.
Jones is a three-time winner in the Cup Series, with his last win coming at Darlington in 2022.
Heim, 21, is currently second in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standings with one win (Circuit of the Americas) in seven starts. He races for the TRICON Garage entry in the Truck Series and in the Xfinity Series for Sam Hunt Racing. Heim has made four starts in Xfinity with a best finish of fourth at Richmond.
This will be Heim’s Cup Series debut.
Jones plans to be at Dover this weekend, though there was no official timetable announced for his return to the car. The team plans to request a medical waiver to keep Jones eligible for the Cup Series Playoffs should he win a race this season or qualify for one of the 16 Playoff spots on points.
“Erik’s long-term health is our number one priority,” said 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 covered auto racing for the Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot and MLive Media Group from 1991 until joining Autoweek in 2011. He won several Michigan Associated Press and national Associated Press Sports Editors awards for auto racing coverage 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 college working in southwest Florida before realizing that the land of Disney and endless summer was no match for the challenge of freezing rain, potholes and long, cold winters in the Motor City.
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