Erik Jones speaks out after pit crew member hospitalized following scary pit road incident

A scary incident happened on pit road during Sunday night’s Enjoy Illinois 300 when a member of Erik Jones’ pit crew was caught in an accident and taken to the hospital. After the race, Jones addressed the situation.

Thomas Hatcher was involved in the accident and was reported to be alert and awake on his way to the hospital. Initial reports said Austin Dillon’s car struck him, but it was later confirmed there was no contact between Dillon’s car and Hatcher.

As for Jones, he said he was still processing what happened considering how quickly it all unfolded. He also has to go back and look at the video to see the situation again.

“It’s hard to tell,” Jones said afterward. “I’ve got to really watch it back. The 3 was, obviously, coming in in front of us. I don’t know. Beyond that, I was gapped to him and tried to get in my box like normal. Obviously, they were coming around and were in front of the car as I was coming in the box. Like I said, I’ve got to see the video to see truly what happened. … I’m just praying for him right now.”

According to KOB4’s Jonathan Fjeld, the tire changer and Jones’ tire carrier got tied up when Jones’ car came in the box. He noticed things didn’t happen in the time they should, but reiterated he couldn’t fully assess what took place until he watched the video.

“They were all a little late coming around with the three in front of us,” Jones said. “We were coming in like normal. Like I said, it’s hard for me — it all happened so quick, right? I can’t really put it all together. I’ve got to see it and watch it back. But thinking about Hatcher and his family and hope to talk to him here, soon.”

Jones finished 18th in the race as Kyle Busch took home the checkered flag. Busch started in the pole position and wound up finishing ahead of the pack for his third win of the season.

It wasn’t an easy race, though. In the last 40 laps, there were five restarts in this race. The Enjoy Illinois 300 was under a weather delay due to lightning to start. Then there were issues with the in-car cameras due to the extreme heat on the track.

On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this report.