Freak Shooting Shelves NHRA Bike Points Leader’s Crew Chief
Jock Ervin, crew chief for NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle leader Steve Johnson, will miss the rest of the Camping World Drag Racing Series season while mending from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Johnson announced via Facebook Tuesday that Ervin, who survived a serious bout with COVID-19, is “okay” after the accident happened as was driving from Charlotte, North Carolina, back to the team’s race shop at suburban Birmingham, Ala., following the recent DeWalt Carolina Nationals.
The incident has left Johnson scrambling to compete at the final four events of the season, at Ennis, Texas; Bristol, Tenn.; Las Vegas; and Pomona, Calif.
The full text of Johnson’s post:
“I want to start off by saying Jock is okay but I wanted our supporters and sponsors to hear this from me first:
On his drive back to our race shop from Charlotte with his wife and Chris Dalton, Jock was exhausted, as you can understand, and wanted to rest.
As a precaution, Jock has a 9mm gun with him while in the truck. He set the alarm on his phone and fell asleep with the gun close by. When the alarm went off, he remembers hitting the snooze button. The next thing we all know was the gun went off putting a bullet through his thigh.
We were told the bullet, luckily, did not hit a bone. However, have you ever googled what happens when a person is shoot in the thigh? Bullets can travel at supersonic speed with a tremendous amount of heat and probably cauterizes anything it passes by. In addition to that bullets are filthy dirty... #infection.
Jock, as you all know, is a warrior; he is at home with doctor’s orders that he will be out for at least three weeks.
Turns out the cops knew about our team and had been following our race team (and others) on social media. They were so helpful and professional through the entire ordeal.
The real superstar was our close friend Chris Dalton. As his ears were understandably ringing like crazy from the gun shot inside the truck, he jumped out and took off his belt and wrapped it around Jock’s leg to slow down the blood loss. We can all be grateful for his reaction time and action.
We have “Randy” a stand in truck driver for the next two NHRA Countdown to the Championship races (four are left) and are reallocating any and all of our resources to keep our team going.
Right now Jock’s health and avoiding any infection is what is most important to me/us. The details of this experience just aren’t important to me right now. Jock was trying to do his job and also trying to be a protector. While being exhausted after a long weekend of work and trying to get the three of them home. Some of his decisions I’m sure would be much different now, “after the fact."
I hope you and the rest of our circle of supporters and friends will consider my hashtag #InspireDontJudge and see this as a serious accident that could’ve been much worse.
Jock said he is grateful no one else was hurt. He has another doctor’s appointment this week. I’ll keep you posted.
