SAD NEWS: Chase Elliott has Departed From NASCAR Today…….
Instead of rolling the dice, Kyle Busch and Chase Briscoe’s team accidentally rolled some wheels at Las Vegas Motor Speedway — the runaway tires causing cautions during the NASCAR Cup Series race. As a result, both will be without their usual jackman and tire changer this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
For Busch, jackman Joseph Moser, and tire changer Shiloh Windsor will sit out the next race, as will Briscoe’s tire changer Daniel Smith and jackman Caleb Dirks. Christopher Bell was able to avoid a similar fate when he left his stall due to a loose wheel as his quick-thanking crew chief Adam Stevens instructed him to dive into a teammate’s box before exiting the pits in order to tighten the unsecured wheel. Both teams have already announced replacements for the weekend ahead.
NASCAR’s weekly penalty report also includes several small $5,000 fines for loose lug nuts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, which were issued to the following teams: No. 11 Kaulig Racing, No. 10 Joe Gibbs Racing. No. 26 Sam Hunt Racing, and the No. 88 JR Motorsports entry. The No. 07 Spire Motorsports Truck Series team was also found with a loose lug nut after the race, resulting in a $2,500 fine.
However, the most serious penalties of the week were issued for Corbin Sklener and Josiah Wright, who were both indefinitely suspended for violating NASCAR’s substance abuse policy. Sklener worked as a tire changer RFK Racing while Wright was a jackman for Mike Harmon Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Two Cup teams will have replacements on their pit crews for violations last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
NASCAR has suspended two pit crew members each from the teams of Kyle Busch and Chase Briscoe because both teams had a tire come off on track during the event.
In the Xfinity Series, the teams of Josh Williams, Aric Almirola, Dean Thompson and Connor Zilisch were each fined $5,000 for not having a lug nut safe and secure at the end of the race. In the Craftsman Truck Series, the team of Justin Haley was fined $2,500 for not having a lug nut safe and secure at the end of the race.
NASCAR indefinitely suspended Josiah Wright, the rear tire changer for Brad Keselowski’s team at RFK Racing, for violating the Substance Abuse Policy.
NASCAR indefinitely suspended Corbin Sklener, who was the tire carrier for GK Racing in the season-opening Truck race at Daytona and was the jackman for Mike Harmon Racing in the season-opening Xfinity race at Daytona, for violating the Substance Abuse Policy.
Kyle Larson’s fondness for Homestead-Miami Speedway is clear but that doesn’t mean he’s always left the South Florida track feeling good.
This weekend, he’ll have three chances at victory. Larson will compete in the NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Craftsman Truck races there in a bid to join Kyle Busch as the only drivers to sweep a triple-header weekend — something Busch did at Bristol in 2010 and ’17.
For a track seemingly built to match Larson’s talents, Homestead-Miami Speedway has only awarded the Hendrick Motorsports driver one Cup and one Xfinity victory while giving him much more heartache through the years.
“I feel like every time I go there, you leave there disappointed because you feel like you’ve had the best car … and just things don’t work out, whether it’s mistakes on my end or ill-timed cautions, combined with a hiccup on pit road or whatever late in the race, and you end up losing,” Larson said Wednesday in response to a question from NBC Sports.
Larson has five top-five finishes in 11 Cup starts at the 1.5-mile track. But he admits he remembers the defeats more than victories in his career. Despite his success at Homestead — Larson has led a track-record 626 laps in Cup — he has more memories of races he didn’t win there.
“I feel like … all but two or three races at Homestead, I felt like we had the best car, the best chance of winning and we don’t have the wins to show for it,” said Larson, who enters this weekend sixth in the points.
Last year, Larson challenged Ryan Blaney for the lead 13 laps from the finish as they approached Austin Dillon, the last driver on the lead lap. Larson tried to squeeze between Blaney and Dillon and spun. Larson finished 13th.
“I don’t regret anything from that race,” Larson said. “Obviously, if I know the result of what’s going to happen I would do something different. I would probably just be more patient now.”
But Larson said he felt like he had to make his move at that point.
“The tires were fading at that point, and I had an opportunity right in front of me and I took it,” he said. “If I’m more patient right there and I don’t have another opportunity to win, everybody’s going to be asking, ‘If you had a hole there why didn’t you try?’ It’s so easy to look back on things and critique them and all that, but we’re making split-second decisions out there at 180 miles an hour or whatever we’re going.
Larson’s lone Cup win at Homestead came in 2022 when he led 199 of the 267 laps.
Larson says he loves the track. When NASCAR changed a rule before this season to permit Cup drivers to compete in Dash 4 Cash Xfinity events — Saturday’s race at Homestead is the first Dash 4 Cash 4 race of the season — Larson wanted to run that race. He’ll be in a Hendrick Motorsports car for that race and drive for Spire Motorsports in Friday’s Truck race.
“It was kind of my idea to run triple-duty at Homestead,” Larson said. “ … Obviously would love to win at least one of them and to win all three would be pretty neat as well.”
In 2023, Larson was chasing Blaney, the leader, to pit road when Blaney slowed more than Larson anticipated at pit entrance.
Larson moved to the right to avoid hitting Blaney’s car but struck sand barrels and damaged his car, ending his race.
“That race … we should have been running 25th with that car, so I was proud of even having an opportunity to race for the win. I know the exterior of the car looked fine, but everything underneath it was junk. I was happy just to have a shot.”
