After finishing eighth in the opening stage, Erik Jones' race quickly went awry. The single, center-locking lug nut on the No. 43 Chevrolet Camaro's right rear wheel would not budge and it became nearly impossible to remove the wheel during a scheduled pit stop.
Tire carrier James Houk, who was in the middle of the bizarre incident, talked to Fox Sports 1 afterwards.
"We knew on that last pit stop something was wrong," said Houk. 'We knew it was going to be a while to get off. We contemplated going back and cutting the wheel completely off, which is actually what we ended up doing on pit road with a sawzall. And then it finally came off. Never seen it!"
The issue is reminiscent of an issue during the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix when the Mercedes F1 team struggled to remove a wheel from Valtteri Bottas' car. It took several days and a high-power drill back at the team shop to successfully remove the wheel.
