Overview

• Denny Hamlin’s right-front wheel detached on lap 384 at Bristol, triggering a caution, a two-lap in-race penalty, and a 31st-place finish five laps down.
• Front tire changer Austin Maloney and jackman Joel Bouagnon received standard two-race suspensions under NASCAR’s loose-wheel safety rule.
• NASCAR managing director Mike Forde confirmed the team’s one-week deferral, a provision available for non-behavioral penalties and routinely granted.
• The suspensions will be served at Kansas Speedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, with Joe Gibbs Racing using substitute pit crew members for those events.
• Hamlin enters the Round of 12 as the No. 1 seed, 26 points above the cutline, as JGR times the bans to protect performance at New Hampshire, where he typically runs stronger than at the ROVAL.