Kyle Busch and his team are getting penalized for some big mistakes they made at the AAA 400 Drive For Autism event at Dover International Speedway recently.
Kyle Busch can’t be happy about his team’s big mistake during the AAA 400 Drive For Autism recently (photo via NASCAR)
During his pit stop, the NASCAR racer’s team failed to fully secure his rear left wheel, leaving him with, basically, three wheels. They realized it as he sped away from the pit stop.
In the video footage of this catastrophe, you can see the pit crew dropped the jack before any of the lug nuts were secure on the wheel. The wheel dislodged, forcing Busch to make a full lap before getting back to the pit stop again.
If you know anything about NASCAR, you know that one loose nut can take a racer out and endanger the other drivers.
A shot of Busch trying to pull out of the pit stop as his back tire spins in place (photo via YouTube)
Joe Gibbs, the team owner, had been hoping for no penalties from NASCAR for this.
“Hopefully, what they understand is we didn’t even get the wheel on the car, really, and we didn’t even have a chance to hit lug nuts,” Gibbs told USA Today Sports. “So, that’s what we’re going to explain to them and then its up to them.”
But of course, NASCAR decided to penalize the team.
On June 7, NASCAR issued their justice and suspended three of the crew members for four races because of this mistake — the crew chief, tire changer, and tire carrier. They won’t return until July 3.
Losing three team members for about a month is going to hit Busch and his crew hard, but they’ll just have to push through it.
You can watch the full coverage of the wheel mishap below.
