NASCAR levies penalties against Kyle Larson, car chief at Talladega

NASCAR levied multiple penalties against Kyle Larson and his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team ahead of Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Larson, who was scratched for qualifying for unapproved adjustments to the roof rails, will serve a pass-through penalty at the start of the race, NASCAR announced. Larson’s car chief has been ejected. His No. 5 Chevrolet passed through inspection and is ready for the race.

Larson will also be short three pit crew members at Talladega. His rear tire changer and jackman are serving two-race suspensions for a wheel coming off last Sunday at Texas. Larson’s fueler is serving a one race suspension for an apron violation during the Xfinity Series race.

Kyle Larson to start from rear of field at Talladega

Cliff Daniels, Larson’s crew chief, said that the wheel falling off during the race at Texas was “bizarre.”

“For us to finish that caution, take the restart from the lead, lead 10 or 12 green flag laps, then have another caution period and then it come loose, obviously, very bizarre,” Daniels told RACER. “There are a lot of things we’re looking at as to why that happened. We think we have the answer. And now it’s a matter of training ourselves on what to look for more in the moment when you think the wheel is tight which obviously we did think the wheel was tight, and then moving forward with NASCAR how can we come together and really get the whole garage involved on this specific case and what a good solution for it could be.

“As I stand right now, only a handful of days into those conversations, I’m optimistic about where this could go. I’m sure it’ll take a little bit of time. But there have been good looks at it so far. And we’ll continue to analyze and see where it goes from here.”

Larson is the current points leader, having won at Las Vegas last month. After sitting on the pole for three consecutive races, Larson will start 38th at Talladega.