The No. 4 truck driven by Kyle Busch lost it’s left rear tire during Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
With the loss of the tire, multiple crew members of Busch’s Kyle Busch Motorsports team, as well as Stewart-Hass Racing, are subject to penalty.
The Truck Series rule book states that “Any loss or separation of an improperly installed tire(s)/wheel(s) from the vehicle after exiting the team’s assigned pit box will result in a three race suspension of the crew chief, tire changer of the lost wheel(s), and the jack man.”
While crew chief Marcus Richmond is an employee of KBM, the other two individuals who could be subject to penalty are SHR employees who were operating on the No. 4 truck for the race. Those individuals are Ernie Pierce, a jackman for Clint Bowyer’s Cup ride, and Coleman Dollarhide, a tire changer for Kurt Busch’s team.
Busch was in the lead of the race when he pitted under caution. After the crew struggled putting on the right front tire, the team opted to not change left side tires and told Busch to leave the pits. However, the lug nuts for the left rear tire had already been loosened and when Busch was called back to the pits to fix the problem the tire fell off.
Appearing on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s Executive Vice President, believes that a penalty is necessary but stopped short of saying that it would affect individuals across multiple series. O’Donnell commented that he believed they were “leaning” on enforcing the penalty just in the Truck Series which would allow the affected individuals to still serve on their respective Cup teams.
