What’s Happening?
At the start of the green flag for Friday night’s Craftsman Truck Series race in Las Vegas, roughly 10 teams were without pit crews, several of them having to leech from Xfinity and Cup Series teams until their own pit crews arrived.
You Need To Know:
- A broken part on the original plane meant to carry members of several pit crews to the Las Vegas track resulted in a delayed takeoff as they had to wait for a backup plane to become available.
- This delay was a major cause for concern as several teams were forced to undergo the green flag without a crew in their pit boxes.
- This resulted in a slight delay in the race’s start time as the green flag was pushed back by about five minutes, leading to some fan confusion.
As reported by Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports, this put the plane’s estimated arrival time at 5:52 pm pst. just 25 minutes before the already rescheduled drop of the green flag. A police escort will accompany the teams to the track.
According to FlightAware, the plane with the pit crews keeps having its landing delayed … current time of landing is 5:52p PT, just 25 minutes before green flag at 6:18p PT (NASCAR had pushed it five minutes later).
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) March 4, 2023
Main Characters
The main characters of the story are the NASCAR teams left suspended in the air just moments before the race began. Many teams, such as Front Row Motorsports, got Cup or Xfinity crews to pitch in until their teams were able to safely arrive to the facility.
Our Cup teams are pulling together to help our @SpeedcoPM team as we wait on our pit crew who were stuck on a plane today due to mechanical issues. The @SpeedcoPM team plans to be at the track very close to the end of Stage 1. pic.twitter.com/pJSBBKjTZh
— Front Row Motorsports (@Team_FRM) March 4, 2023
From The Officials
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Twitter account tweeted this video of the crews finally arriving to the garage area.
The delayed pit crews have arrived at @LVMotorSpeedway. pic.twitter.com/h80RCbN3R9
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) March 4, 2023
In The Stands
Kenneth W Lee Jr. tweeted this stilled image of the plane touching down at the Las Vegas Airport.

Here, Twitter user DennyDeliversYT tweets a Kyle Busch pitstop with several RCR Xfinity crew members going over the wall in his team’s absence.

From The Pressbox
NASCAR reporter, Matt Weaver, pokes fun at the situation as he plays career BINGO!
'Pit crews aren't here by the drop of the green flag' just got checked off my career BINGO card
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) March 4, 2023
Matthew Burroughs continues the criticism of FOX’s coverage of NASCAR.
Ah missing important pit stops, some teams without pit crews. Would love to have seen that live. Fox continues to miss the mark. #NASCAR
— Matthew Burroughs (@MJBurroughs) March 4, 2023
Here Bob Pockrass Tweets that Kyle Busch’s pit crew is geared up and heading to pit road.
Kyle Busch crew headed to pit road. pic.twitter.com/V31mDaoVqK
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) March 4, 2023
Jeff Gluck Tweets that the pit crews have arrived during caution.
Five minivans with pit crew members have arrived in a hurry during this caution. pic.twitter.com/ookWzhDIlp
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) March 4, 2023
UPDATE: With the pit crews now at the track, hopefully the rest of the race will go on without a hitch.