Denny Hamlin will be without his crew chief and two pit crew members for the next four races after NASCAR suspended them Tuesday for a wheel coming off Hamlin’s car Monday at Dover Motor Speedway.
Kaulig Racing’s No. 16 Cup team also was penalized for having a wheel come off AJ Allmendinger’s car at Dover. JR Motorsports’ No. 1 Xfinity team also faces the same penalty from Dover.
The penalty for Hamlin’s team and Kaulig Racing’s team goes through the Coca-Cola 600, meaning those teams will be without suspended team members at Darlington, Kansas, the All-Star Race at Texas and the Coca-Cola 600. They’ll be able to return June 5 at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Gone for the next four events for Hamlin’s team will be crew chief Chris Gabehart, front tire changer Blake Houston and jackman Derrell Edwards.
Gone for the next four events from the No. 16 Kaulig Racing team, which has had multiple drivers this season, will be crew chief Matt Swiderski, front tire changer Keiston France and jackman Jonathan Willard.
This makes eight times NASCAR has penalized Cup teams for a wheel coming off a car during an event.
Kaz Grala and Justin Haley both lost wheels in the Daytona 500. Todd Gilliland suffered the same fate a week later at Auto Club Speedway before Corey LaJoie lost one at Phoenix. Bubba Wallace also lost a wheel at Circuit of the Americas on March 27. Live Fast Motorsports was penalized when a wheel came off B.J. McLeod‘s car at Talladega.
Haley’s Kaulig Racing team and Gilliland’s Front Row Motorsports team both appealed their penalties. Those penalties were upheld by the National Motorsports Appeals Panel.
In the Xfinity Series, a wheel came off Sam Mayer‘s car at Dover last weekend. NASCAR has suspended crew chief Taylor Moyer and pit crew members Orane Ossowski and Markus Pierce-Brewster. They will each miss the next four races: Darlington, Texas, Charlotte and Portland. They’ll be able to return June 25 at Nashville Superspeedway.
NASCAR announced that Bruce Schlicker, crew chief for Allmendinger’s team at Kaulig Racing had been fined $5,000 for a lug nut not properly installed at the end of the Dover race.
NASCAR also announced that Jason Houghtaling had been indefinitely suspended for violating the sanctioning body’s behavior policy.
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NASCAR issues suspensions for Dover violations originally appeared on NBCSports.com