Fired Kaulig Racing spotter reveals what happened leading up to William Byron, Ty Dillon wreck at Las Vegas

Joe White, the former Kaulig Racing spotter for Ty Dillon, has come out and explained his side of the story. White was informed he was being let go after arriving in Talladega for the race weekend. He has now revealed his point of view from last week’s NASCAR race.

The wreck was catastrophic. Ty Dillon was multiple laps down. William Byron was racing for a win and a chance to advance to the Championship 4. There are multiple things that could have gone differently and this incident would have been avoided.

As Joe White tells it, he did tell the spotter of the 24, Brandon Lines, that the 10 car was going to pit. That communication was not interpreted the right way.

“Brandon is at the other end of the spotter stand towards Turn 1, so I was like, ‘I got to get to Brandon,'” White told Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic. “So I hustled down there. I didn’t get to him; I didn’t touch him on the shoulder, turn him around, but I got, I would say, four or five feet from him, couple people down, and he turned and looked at me.

“We made eye contact. I pointed to the bottom, twice, and mouthed the words ‘we’re pitting’ – even though I know he can’t hear and he probably can’t read my lips, but I gestured just like I would do any other person that was pitting. Obviously, that was misunderstood. He thought we were giving him the bottom, and that was not the case.”

Kaulig Racing let Joe White go this week. He was slated to finish out the Cup Seires season with Ty Dillon. Then, in 2026, he was going to move to the Kaulig Trucks program.

Kaulig Racing making moves for 2026 season

Speaking of the Kaulig Racing plans for 2026, a key announcement was put out earlier today. Butterbean Queen is the first driver picked for the Ram Trucks NASCAR return. Kaulig Trucks put out the news today and it is exciting news for sure.

Butterbean is the 2025 ARCA Menards Series champion. He is going to close out the Xfinity Series season with Kaulig in the 11 car that has been on a rotation of drivers for the last few months.

So, izt remains to be seen exactly how Kaulig Racing looks next year. Will they even have an Xfinity program with five truck teams and two Cup teams? That would be an incredibly difficult business to juggle, and to do it with two different manufacturers, too.

Kaulig Racing is making moves for the long-term. Could this Ram Trucks deal turn into a Dodge Cup Series deal? While that appears to be the plan, there is a lot that has to happen before that comes to fruition.