Bubba Wallace was dominating at Richmond, leading 123 laps, when a lug nut fell out of his crew’s wheel gun during a pit stop. The wheel came off 50 feet down pit road, costing him a likely win and leaving him 28th. But the jackman did everything right—this was pure bad luck.
Wallace had the field covered Saturday night until a routine green-flag stop went sideways. His crew appeared to execute normally, but the left front wheel separated from the hub almost immediately after he left the pit box.
The Mechanics of the Mistake
Frame-by-frame analysis of the pit stop reveals the true culprit wasn’t human error but a mechanical failure that created an impossible situation for the crew. A single lug nut for the left front wheel somehow fell out of the wheel gun with no one on the No. 23 pit crew noticing it, setting off a chain reaction that would doom Wallace’s championship hopes.
The sequence began when the left front wheel was being removed. As the tire changer pulled the wheel off the hub, the wheel encountered resistance—likely catching on retention pins designed to keep wheels secure if lug nuts aren’t fully tight, or potentially getting hung up on the final thread of an incompletely loosened lug nut. This resistance required the tire changer to pull twice, creating the crucial moment when the lug nut separated from the socket.
“The moment of disaster happens as the wheel is being pulled off and we can see the wheel lug separate and fall to the ground,” explains the technical analysis. “The issue here is that the separation happens behind the tire changer so he doesn’t realize it immediately and goes back on the wheel with no lug nut in the socket.”
Why the Jackman Made the Right Call
This is where the jackman’s experience and training actually worked perfectly—just not in Wallace’s favor. NASCAR jackmen are trained to verify that wheels are properly secured before dropping the car, and Wallace’s jackman did exactly that. He took the precautionary step of looking back at the front wheel before releasing the jack.
From his perspective, everything appeared normal. The socket went onto the wheel hub and began spinning, which is exactly what should happen when a lug nut is being tightened. “His assumption is that there’s a wheel nut inside and that the wheel is tight,” the analysis notes. “He has no way to see that the socket is empty, so nothing could have been done differently there.”
The jackman couldn’t see what the tire changer couldn’t feel—that the socket was empty. Lug nuts are held in place by O-rings and magnets, but when one falls out behind the tire changer during the chaos of a sub-12-second pit stop, there’s simply no reliable way to detect it immediately. As one industry expert noted, “There is no way to feel a wheel nut flying out of the socket, because in relation to the wheel gun it isn’t very heavy. The only way really to catch it is to see it in front of you.”
Communication Breakdown in Real Time
The front tire changer, to his credit, was prompt to start waving his hands at the pit box in frustration, yelling over the team radio that something was wrong, but by then Wallace was already pulling away. The timing was cruel—the tire changer realized the problem at almost the exact moment the wheel separated from the hub.
This wasn’t a case of someone not doing their job or making a critical error. While a pair of tweets showed the entire pit stop and the calamitous situation and end result, there really is no one to point a finger of blame at. The jackman dropped the car at the appropriate time based on visual confirmation that appeared to show a properly secured wheel.
The Bigger Picture
Wallace had already locked up his playoff spot with his Brickyard 400 win, but Richmond was supposed to build momentum heading into the postseason. For those who backed him on NJ online sports betting sites, it was a brutal beat—watching a sure winner turn into a longshot finish because of a $2 part. The 23XI team showed they have the speed to win—they just need the breaks to go their way next time.
The incident also highlighted the incredible sportsmanship that still exists in the garage. The pit crew of fellow Toyota driver Chase Briscoe, who was still out on the track, saw what happened to Wallace and promptly pitched in to get the tire back on his car, preventing what could have been an even more dangerous situation.
Moving forward, this serves as a reminder that in a sport where success is measured in thousandths of seconds and victories can hinge on the smallest details, sometimes even perfect execution isn’t enough. The 23XI Racing team will need to put this behind them quickly as they prepare for the playoffs, knowing that while they couldn’t control Saturday’s outcome, their speed and execution throughout the race proved they have what it takes to contend for a championship.
