NASCAR suspends Byron crew members after wheel loss
NXTbets Pro | Published On: August 26, 2026
NASCAR suspends Byron crew
NASCAR suspended William Byron’s rear tire changer Orane Ossowski and jackman Allen Holman for two races after the left-rear wheel came off Byron’s car at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The sanction came under NASCAR’s safety rule that covers the loss or separation of an improperly installed tire or wheel during an event, a rule built to punish mistakes that can turn a pit stop into a safety issue in a hurry.
The suspension hits a critical part of the calendar. Ossowski and Holman will miss the next two NASCAR Cup Series championship points events, which includes the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway and the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Those races matter on their own, and they matter even more when a team is trying to keep its pit crew intact through the stretch run. NASCAR’s decision leaves Byron’s crew shorthanded for two events that reward every point and every clean stop.
Byron wheel loss fallout
The wheel loss changed Byron’s race immediately. He was running inside the top five on Lap 233 when the left-rear wheel came off, and the car slammed into the outside wall. NASCAR also sent Byron to the back with a two-lap penalty, a hit that pushed an otherwise competitive run into damage control for the rest of the day. Byron still kept working through the problem and finished 30th, five laps down, after the incident at New Hampshire.
Hendrick Motorsports moved quickly to cover the loss of two crew members. Dax Hollifield and Rod Cox will replace Ossowski and Holman for the next two races, and both come from Alex Bowman’s No. 48 team. That keeps the personnel change in house and gives Byron a fresh pit combination for the next pair of championship points races. For a team that expects speed on pit road and precision on the track, the swap puts the focus on execution from the first stop of the replacement period.
NASCAR weekly report
NASCAR’s weekly penalty report included no other new issues. That left the Byron penalty as the main competitive news out of the report and kept the focus on one of the sport’s most visible safety rulings. The league used the same report to update another personnel matter, but that change went in the opposite direction of a suspension.
Quinta Funderburk was reinstated and is eligible to return to all NASCAR activity after a Nashville suspension for violating NASCAR’s substance abuse policy. The update closes that chapter and puts Funderburk back in the pool for future work. Combined with the Byron ruling, the report showed a clear split between punishment for a wheel that came off and reinstatement for a driver cleared to rejoin the sport.
