NASCAR Cup Series team fire spotter after huge playoff wreck

A NASCAR Cup Series team has fired a spotter after a dramatic moment at Las Vegas last weekend.

Joe White revealed on social media on Wednesday that Kaulig Racing have relieved him of his duties spotting for Ty Dillon, with the team moving Frank Deiny over from AJ Allmendinger's crew where he was replaced by TJ Bell.

Dillon's crew were under the spotlight on Sunday in Nevada when playoff star William Byron, running second with around 30 laps left, smashed into the back of the No. 10 car as it slowed to visit pit road.

Byron insisted that he'd had no signal from Dillon or his own spotter that the No. 10 was coming to pit (some ten laps after the general pit cycle had ended), with the wreck sending him from a dominant position – with a chance to lock himself into the Championship 4 – down into the playoff cut zone.

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White: 'Got to Talladega, got fired'

White posted on social media on Wednesday: "Got to Talladega, parked the bus, got fired. In an Uber to the airport to go home for the weekend. Also to be clear, it was already determined that I would not be spotting for Ty next year, but that I would still be with Kaulig in some fashion. But not now."

Kaulig has not publicly spoken on whether the move is related to Sunday's incident. GPFans has contacted Kaulig Racing for comment.

Byron's crew chief Rudy Fugle told Sirius XM NASCAR this week after the wreck: “Our spotter didn’t get clear communication and definitely didn’t get that early enough," adding “His [Byron's spotter]'s attention was gotten when William was getting into turn three," explaining that this was too late by normal standards.

For his part, Dillon said in an interview shortly after the wreck: “Usually I rely on the spotter to let everybody know, and my spotter said he let the 24 spotter know. I don’t know if it’s a lack of information getting relayed, but that’s a quick amount of time for that to happen.

"I don’t think I did anything egregious getting on pit road. I hate it for them and hate that it took him out. He was lining up to have a really good day, but I don’t know who that is on or if I could do much different there.”

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