Joe Gibbs Racing suspends 2 crew members from Martin Truex Jr.'s team
Joe Gibbs Racing doesn’t want team employees publicly fighting with each other.
The team said Thursday that it had suspended two crew members from Martin Truex Jr.’s team for three races after an altercation with Kyle Busch’s crew chief Adam Stevens. The incident happened after Busch and Truex crashed while going for the lead after a restart at Indianapolis.
Here’s what happened:
The crew members suspended are rear tire changer Lee Cunningham and front tire changer Chris Taylor, according to both NBC and Fox.
But wait, you say. Truex doesn’t drive for JGR. Why are they suspending his team members? Well, as part of Furniture Row’s technical alliance with JGR, his pit crew members are JGR employees.
Truex was to the inside of Busch and got loose as the two drivers dove into turn one. He slid up the track and collected Busch, who had led 87 of the race’s 110 laps to that point.
The restart incident came immediately after Truex’s and Busch’s teams had ended an arrangement they had practiced throughout the day. The two drivers had previously cooperated on restarts to make sure they maintained the top two positions and didn’t cause an accident.
– – – – – – –
Nick Bromberg is the editor of Dr. Saturday and From the Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
