NASCAR DRIVERS DISCUSS SAFETY FOLLOWING ERIK JONES’ CRASH, BROKEN BACK AT TALLEDEGA

DOVER, Del. — Erik Jones tried not to think about someone else driving his car Sunday as a compression fracture in his lower back sidelined him from the race at Dover Motor Speedway.

After doctors told him two days after his hard crash at Talladega Superspeedway that he would have to sit out this week, he pretty much resigned himself to the fact. And he didn’t think it would bother him too much … until he got to the track Saturday morning to help the Legacy Motor Club team and substitute driver Corey Heim.

It’s tougher when you get here, and you see your suits hanging in the closet,” Jones said Saturday at the track. “You wake up on practice day and know you don’t get to put those on.”

Jones is the first driver this year to have to sit out a race because of injury and the first to break his back in the Next Gen car. After the first year of the Next Gen car had drivers clamoring for change, NASCAR took significant steps in making the car absorb more of the energy in an accident than the driver.