NASCAR Driver Recounts Surviving “Really Ugly” Accident After Dale Earnhardt Jr Support For Reaction During Horrific Episode in Talladega

20 seconds of horror, excruciating pain, and crippling fear. We generally think of 20 seconds as a very short time frame. It’s so negligible to us in our daily lives that we possibly don’t even value them. But for Jordan Anderson, it was just those 20 seconds that changed his life and could’ve done much more damage if things had panned out differently in those 20 seconds. He was lucky he had the support of Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Anderson went through a life-altering 20-second ordeal at Talladega Superspeedway earlier this month. In what was his 138th start in the Camping World Truck Series, the driver suffered second-degree and third-degree burns all over his body.  What made the situation even more complicated for Anderson was the fact that the incident took place while the truck he was driving was still moving. He was moving uncontrolled toward the pit walls, with 32 trucks coming from behind at high speeds. There was no room for error.

Sitting in that cabin with the fire spreading around, the only thought going through Anderson’s mind was “Whatever is on the other side of this window can’t be worse than what’s going to happen if I just sit here.” 

Recovering from his ghastly injuries, he recounts what his father-in-law said to him after the horrific incident. “There was more right that happened than what could have potentially gone wrong. With 32 trucks behind me, it could have been really ugly if I’d gotten hit or pinned in the truck or something like that.”

He was saved as a result of Dale Earnhart Jr’s help in flying him home by his private plane to North Carolina.

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It is difficult to see a brighter side when you go through an ordeal like this. Months of rehab and recovery, the possibility of never getting to do what you love. But Jordan is keeping strong. He has optimism in his eyes.

Why was Dale Earnhardt Jr needed at Talladega?

Anderson has been pulling his own weight in Camping Truck Series, having to fund his own operation. There have been times he has had to sell things in order to give his truck necessary upgrades, but he has managed.

On that night at Talladega, he was on Lap 19 when he saw smoke bellow from under the truck; and the smoke very quickly turned into a raging fire. Anderson narrated, “From what we could tell, something got into the oil line off the pump on the front of the motor and cut hole in it. It basically drained the entire contents of the oil tank to the headers. That’s why the fire was so big and so hot and lasted for so long.”

“I remember seeing the fire on the right side of the floor, shutting the motor off, slowing down. (This time) it’s like, ‘Alright, there’s fire. There’s a lot of fire. Now the fire is in my face.”

“It’s getting hot. It’s getting really hot. I was ready to get out of there, whether it was the roof or the deck lid. I was going to try to climb out there just because I couldn’t stay in there any longer.”

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It was a tough situation to watch on TV, it must have been dreadful to live through it. 20 seconds, 20 seconds is all it took.