NASCAR Cup Series driver Daniel Suarez has expressed his relief after he and his team avoided injury following a dangerous incident at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The wheel found itself heading towards Suarez’s pit box, where his own crew were working on his car, and the 50+ lbs tire slammed into the rear bumper, narrowly avoiding one of Suarez's men.
Thankfully, the incident did not result in a serious injury, with the gas man only avoiding harm as the tire hit his gas instead of his body.
Will Nemechek’s team be penalised by NASCAR?
Suarez took to social media after the race to show what the incident looked like from a birds-eye view of the pit box, and expressed his relief that nobody was injured.
“After a race like today’s, this video puts everything into perspective! So glad none of my guys got hurt by that tire, especially Seth and Milan,” Suarez wrote on X.
Although no official penalty has been announced yet for Nemechek’s pit crew, it is somewhat surprising given NASCAR has increasingly clamped down on loose wheels or lug nuts, with fines and even race bans for some pit crew team members in recent weeks.
For example, Shane Van Gisbergen’s rear-tire changer and the jackman were suspended for two races each, after a right-rear tire on the No. 88 car came loose.