After a heads-up move by Christopher Bell, Adam Stevens, and Joe Gibbs Racing in last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, NASCAR has sent out a bulletin to clarify the rules.
Per NASCAR’s bulletin, issued on Thursday, any vehicle that receives service in another team’s pit stall for a matter of safety — tightening a lug nut or wheel, removing a fuel can, removing a wedge wreck, or removing a jack — will receive a flag status penalty.
If said pit stop occurs under green-flag conditions, the driver will be required to do a pass-through. Otherwise, the driver will be sent to the tail-end of the longest line for the restart.
While getting service in another team’s box is “alright” for safety matters, a harsher penalty will be applied for drivers or teams that are pitting in another team’s pit stall for competition adjustments.
In that instance, a driver would be held for a lap/laps.
This clarification stems from Christopher Bell’s move last weekend at Las Vegas, where after a routine pit stop, the Norman, Oklahoma-native discovered he had a loose wheel on his No. 20 Toyota Camry XSE.
While thinking on his feet, Adam Stevens, the crew chief for Bell, called the Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE into the pit stall of his teammate, Chase Briscoe, where the No. 19 tightened the lug nut and sent him off.
A heads-up call from the No. 20 team, but @CBellRacing will have to restart at the tail of the longest line. pic.twitter.com/Vl8sZlf06x
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 16, 2025
Bell was sent to the tail-end of the longest line as a result of this move, but was able to avoid the much steeper penalty that comes with having a wheel come loose on the racetrack — which typically is a two-lap penalty and a two-week vacation for two pit crew members.
With yet another wrinkle added to the loose wheel situation with the seventh-generation racecar, teams will be attempting to avoid vacations for their crew members by stopping in the boxes of their teammates.
In the first five events of the season, three teams have already been handed down penalties for improperly secured wheels, those being Kyle Larson (Hendrick Motorsports), Kyle Busch (Richard Childress Racing), and Chase Briscoe (Joe Gibbs Racing).
