Cliff Daniels, crew chief for Kyle Larson, will miss the next four Cup races as a penalty for a wheel coming off Larson’s car last weekend at Sonoma Raceway.
NASCAR announced the penalty Tuesday. NASCAR also suspended front tire changer Donnie Tasser and jackman Brandon Johnson.
Hendrick Motorsports will not appeal. The team has not determined who will fill Daniels’ role at the track.
Daniels will miss races at Nashville, Road America, Atlanta and New Hampshire. Chris Gabehart, crew chief for Denny Hamlin, will serve the final race in his four-race suspension at Nashville. With Daniels and Gabehart suspended, it means two of the four crew chiefs in last year’s championship race will miss Nashville because of a wheel coming off their team’s car.
This is the 10th time this season that a wheel has come off a Cup car in a race and led to a four-race suspension. A team can appeal the decision, but no team that appealed that penalty this year has won.
Those who have had their crew chief and two pit crew members suspended four races this season are:
Justin Haley (infraction in Daytona 500), Kaz Grala (Daytona 500), Todd Gilliland (Auto Club), Corey LaJoie (Phoenix), Bubba Wallace (Circuit of the Americas), BJ McLeod (Talladega), Denny Hamlin (Dover), AJ Allmendinger (Dover) and Haley (Kansas).
The series takes this weekend off and returns June 26 at Nashville Superspeedway on NBC.
