Kyle Larson loses right rear wheel under caution, held two laps after leading at Texas

Unless something major happens, Kyle Larson might be more or less done for the day. After leading early, Larson was held for two laps on pit road. Under caution, Larson lost a wheel on the track and NASCAR does not like that.

The penalty for losing a wheel under caution is being held for two laps. There will likely be a penalty to his crew over the next two to four races. Kyle Larson led for much of the day up to this point but this is detrimental to his efforts.

Larson felt like he had a flat and then, the right rear came off. A tough break for Larson after starting today on the pole.

LARSON LOSES A TIRE FROM THE LEAD!

The fastest so far in @TXMotorSpeedway might have just had his day ruined as he will be held 2 laps for the right-rear tire falling off.

Luckily for his race it was under caution.#NASCAR pic.twitter.com/RyZsspclEs

— NASCAR on TSN (@NASCARonTSN) April 14, 2024

It was going to take an incident like thi to keep Kyle Larson from leading every lap of this race. With how slippery and slick the Texas track is, there are plenty of caution flags to go around and likely time to at least get back on the lead lap.

If Larson is out of the way, it opens the door for Tyler Reddick and others to move to the front and control the race. The chaos of Texas will also give some drivers who are rarely up front an opportunity to makes moves and put themselves in great position by the end of this race.

Larson will have to hope he gets flags and hope that his car isn’t off kilter following that loose wheel.

Kyle Larson struggling in dirty air

So, it turns out, it didn’t take long to get back on the lead lap. The caution flags kept coming and restarts kept building up. Drivers were having a hard time in Turns 2 and 4. That also opened up the playbook for some of these crew chiefs as well.

Larson’s car is clearly not the same as it was. Things are just not clicking back in traffic. It could be due to the setup of the car. They were hoping to be up front most of the day and had a trimmed out, fast car on the pole. Or that wheel incident threw things off as far as the handling of the car.

Even back on the lead lap, Larson is having problems moving up. However, as he gets into the top-20, he may start to make strong moves and find enough clean air to get back into the top-10. If there are a few cautions at the end of this one, Larson might just shoot to the front again.

If Kyle Larson starts to sniff the top-5 late in this race, that’s bad news for the field. That No. 5 car is fast as a bat out of Hell and he is driving pissed off.