Chris Buescher's Wheel Detaches While at Full Speed in NASCAR Cup Race

With less than 30 laps completed in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Chris Buescher's right front wheel flew off his No. 17 Fastenal Ford. In the replay viewers can clearly see the single-wheel nut and hub fly off at full speed, sending the vehicle into the wall.

While the crash was enough to end Buescher's day the impact goes further, as a determent to keep teams from pushing the barrier on tire strategy, any wheel lost will result in the suspension of two crew members for two races or more.

This penalty predates the Next Gen, single-lug era, and originally existed to stop crew members from leaving a few of the lug nuts loose for a potential competitive advantage.

Road & Track Contributing Editor, Bozi Tatarevic explained in a Twitter/X thread how the tire disconnected as easily and violently as it did. Tatarevic explained that since the single-lug was not fully tightened the tire was riding at an angle and the extra pressure led to an inevitable snap.

This is the 23rd detached wheel in the Cup Series since the NextGen car was introduced, according to Seth Eggert's tracker he shared on Twitter/X. This is the first major tire problem NASCAR has had so far in the 2024 season.

When Buescher lost his tire his car hit the wall hard, after about seven minutes of attempting to quickly weld and repair the hole it caused a red flag was thrown to speed up the repair and preserve as many race laps as possible.

Buescher, who had a breakout season with RFK in 2023, entered the weekend 15th in the standings and will fall drastically with a last-place finish at Las Vegas. The team and driver will have their work cut out for them in the coming weeks to stay on track for a repeat playoff spot.

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