NASCAR hands out two suspensions after Cup Series incident at Pocono

NASCAR Cup Series News Wednesday, June 17, 2026 at 7:03 AM ET •By Chris Deeley

Two NASCAR crew members have been suspended for a pair of upcoming races after an incident at Pocono on Sunday.

Beard Motorsports' No. 62 car brought out a caution during the race when it lost a right-front wheel on Lap 105 of Sunday's Cup Series race, with Casey Mears just a passenger as he hit the outside wall.

Front tire changer Caison Dillon and jackman Garrett Crall will be suspended for the next two events, at San Diego and Sonoma, as a result of the incident, which saw the tire and wheel separate while detached from the car.

Mears had been hoping to reach 500 career Cup Series starts with his part-time schedule this year, but failure to qualify at Talladega means that he'll need to add another race to hit the milestone.

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Mears: Hard hit, but I'm okay

Speaking after the end of his race at the Tricky Triangle, Mears said: “We just ended up having a loose wheel right there, which is a bummer because, me not having a whole lot of experience with these cars and being at this track, now that I look back on it, we started out way too loose.

"The car was numb and I didn’t have a good feel for it. Then, once we got the car tighter, a little tighter and tighter every run that we ran, we got way more competitive. And there at the end, that last change we made helped me even more, yet.

"So we had just gotten the car where I feel like I could cruise up there and get inside and break into the 20s and maybe have a solid day, bring some points to Indy. But, when the wheel comes off, your day’s over. It was a hard hit but I’m OK, so, good deal.”

The good news for Beard Motorsports in all of this is that their status as a part-time team means that this suspension likely won't impact them at all, with the No. 62 not on the entry list for San Diego this weekend and unlikely to be at Sonoma.