Groovy Hollow Recap
Ty Dillon’s now former spotter, Joe White, announced on social media that he has been fired by Kaulig Racing following his driver’s now infamous incident at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with William Byron.
In his post, White claims that he had arrived at Talladega Superspeedway for this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race before being notified of his firing.
In his place, Frank Deiny, the usual spotter for Kaulig’s No. 16 team and driver AJ Allmendinger, will spot for Dillon, while veteran T.J. Bell takes over duties for Allmendinger.
In a follow-up post, White claims that “it was already determined” he would be relieved of duties for the No. 10 car at the end of the season, though the flat-out firing was a surprise, as he would return to Kaulig “in some fashion.”
Although spotter changes can sometimes go overlooked, even at NASCAR’s highest level, White’s firing follows a now-notorious crash between Dillon and NASCAR Cup Series Playoff driver William Byron that occurred this past weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
With 32 laps to go in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400, Byron, who was off to a solid start to the Round of Eight, was running in second behind teammate Kyle Larson, who had dominated that afternoon. Coming to 31 to go, Byron was closing in on Dillon, who, seemingly unknown to the No. 24, was coming in for a green flag stop.
Byron slammed into the left rear of the No. 10 at full speed, destroying the No. 24 and ending Byron’s day.
Though the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Champion was not injured, the debate on who was to blame for this accident, Byron, Byron’s Spotter, Dillon, or Dillon’s spotter, has raged well into the latter half of this week.
All things aside, the matter of fact that rests on the minds of fans is that a non-playoff Chevrolet wrecked a playoff Chevrolet, and as a result, Byron sits 15 points below the cutline.
Despite the firing of White, Kaulig CEO Chris Rice said Wednesday morning during an interview with Sirius XM NASCAR Radio that he saw no fault from either party in this incident.
“I don’t think anybody was in the wrong,” Rice said. “I think William was doing what he needed to do, and I think Ty was doing what he needed to do.” However, he was referring to Dillon and Byron, and not the spotters, in doing so.
Rice also stressed that wrecking a fellow Chevrolet, one that is pursuing a championship, was something the team did not want to do, saying, “To hurt a Chevy’s nothing we want to do.”
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