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COTA penalty: NASCAR suspends Kyle Larson No. 5 crew members for two races

Nick Profile Picby:Nick Geddes•03/05/25•

NickGeddesNews

Kyle Larson
Jason Allen-Imagn Images

NASCAR has penalized Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team for losing a tire during this past Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at COTA.

In violation of sections 8.8.10.4.A & C of the rulebook — loss or separation of an improperly installed tire/wheel from the vehicle during the event — the No. 5 team will be without two crew members for the next two Cup Series races (Phoenix, Las Vegas). Brandon Johnson and Blaine Anderson are the two crew members who have been suspended.

Larson’s team will welcome jackman Eric Ludwig and tire changer Jafar Hall from Justin Haley’s car, due to Hendrick supplying the pit crew members for Spire Motorsports, Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports reported Tuesday.

Larson ran into trouble when his front right tire came off. It rolled down the track and caused the caution flag to come out, throwing a massive wrench into his race. Worse, it came right after Larson had made a pit stop. At the time, the crew worked primarily on the opposite side of his car as the wheel that came loose.

Kevin Harvick circles another catastrophic error for Kyle Larson, team

Larson finished P32, his worst finish of the young season. FOX Sports analyst Kevin Harvick weighed in on the issues on his “Happy Hour” podcast.

“Well we’ve been very critical of Kyle Busch‘s situation because he’s been running up front and had these scenarios happen like you see right here with the wheel falling off, or pit road penalties,” Harvick said. “But we have seen this weakness out of the 5 car as they’ve gone through the last couple years for sure. They’ve had some catastrophic pit stop moments that have taken them out of races. This was actually another one of those moments that will have the effect of things with suspensions and like that going forward.”

His crew also contributed to him losing one at Texas Motor Speedway last April. That one came on an extended run, so it wasn’t quite clear what happened. But the bottom line is that Larson’s team has an issue right now.

“There’s a lot of pressure on these pit crew guys,” Harvick said. “The pit stops are super fast and you have to be right on the edge of making a mistake. These guys have definitely made a few more mistakes than most of the guys on pit road.”

On3’s Thomas Goldkamp contributed to this report.