After a crash during the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, Erik Jones had to go to UAB University Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. By 11:30 p.m. CT, Jones got checked out, was let go, and was going back home to North Carolina later that evening.
A bunch of Toyota Racing drivers were the first to stop for fuel with 36 laps left before the race ended. Tyler Reddick was in the lead with a line of cars behind him. But then, as they were going into Turn 3, a bad push made Jones hit the inside wall really hard. His teammate John-Hunter Nemechek was also in the crash.
Bubba Wallace from 23XI Racing and Denny Hamlin from Joe Gibbs Racing got damaged too, but only Nemechek was able to keep going. Along with Reddick, only Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs got away from the crash.
The crash started when Nemechek bumped into Wallace going into Turn 3 on lap 154 of 188. Wallace then hit the back-right side of Jones’s car, making him crash into the wall really hard. Nemechek couldn’t avoid it, and his car got messed up too, hitting Hamlin.
Jones said on the radio that his back was hurting, but after getting checked, he was okay. He said, “I’m a little sore, but I’ll be alright. No. 23 (Wallace) was pushing … we were pushing and shoving, I got sideways into (Turn) 3, tried to gather it up and got really hard into the wall. Hard hit, but I’m alright. If you’re gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough.”
But later, he had to go back to the care center after being let go at first. Then they took him to a nearby hospital for more checks. He’s been released since then.
Jones finished 35th, and it was his first race this season where he couldn’t finish. He’s now 19th in the regular season standings. NASCAR is taking his wrecked car back to check how well it held up.
Christopher Bell got taken out in an earlier crash, so only three Toyotas were still racing after that. The crash was bad luck for Toyota, but it also brought the remaining three cars to the front. Reddick ended up winning in a messy finish that saw Corey LaJoie’s car flip over. Michael McDowell got turned around while leading the race after trying to block Brad Keselowski.
