During the NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday (April 21), the Toyotas had a huge crash that saw Erik Jones take a violent hit into the outside wall in turn 3.
After initially being checked and released from the infield care center, Jones returned to the care center after the race before being sent to a local hospital for further evaluation.
A further update came on Tuesday (April 23) that Jones would not be competing in the next race at Dover Motor Speedway, suffering a compound fracture in his vertebra from the accident.
Replacing him in Legacy Motor Club’s No. 43 will be Craftsman Truck Series driver Corey Heim, who will make his Cup Series debut come Sunday (April 28).
The selection of Heim to replace Jones comes as no surprise. Not only does Heim have the talent to be a full-time Cup driver one day, but he also signed with Legacy Motor Club, as well as 23XI Racing, to be both teams’ reserve driver. This is in addition to his role as the sim driver for both teams as well.
Not to mention, he is in the midst of his second full-time Truck Series campaign with TRICON Garage and another part-time Xfinity Series endeavor with Sam Hunt Racing. Yeah, Heim is a busy man for 2024.
Heim isn’t the first driver to get his first Cup start via injury replacement. Jones himself got his first chance in a Cup car back in 2015, replacing Kyle Busch while he sat out the first one-third of the season after breaking both legs in an accident in the season-opening Xfinity race at Daytona International Speedway.
Hell, Heim isn’t even the first driver to make his Cup Series debut via replacement at Dover. Matt Kenseth‘s first time in a Cup car back in 1998 was in replacement of Bill Elliott, who was attending his father’s funeral. Kenseth brought Elliott’s No. 94 home sixth, an impressive debut for such a treacherous track.
The last Truck Series driver to get his first Cup Series start via replacement was Carson Hocevar, who substituted for Corey LaJoie in Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 while LaJoie went and replaced a suspended Chase Elliott in the No. 9 at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Before that, Zane Smith was tabbed to replace Chris Buescher at the same track one year prior when Buescher tested positive for COVID-19.
Now both Smith and Hocevar are teammates at…
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