Ty Dillon’s ex-spotter says he was “disappointed but not surprised” after Kaulig Racing fired him following the Las Vegas incident

After last week’s incident with William Byron at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Ty Dillon’s former spotter Joe White was expecting a phone call from Chris Rice, CEO of Kaulig Racing, the team Dillon drives for. The call finally came on Wednesday afternoon, and it relayed bad news for White.

Rice told White that the No. 10 Kaulig Racing team would part ways with him effective immediately. Although disappointed, White wasn’t shocked by the news, as he wasn’t going to spot Dillon next season. Reflecting on his split with Kaulig Racing, White told The Athletic,

“I got fired. I got let go from my position. I’m disappointed but not surprised either, as I knew I wasn’t going back to spot that car next year anyway.”

Replacing White will be AJ Allmendinger’s spotter, Frank Deiny, while TJ Bell will move to Allmendinger’s team, taking Deiny’s spot. Ty Dillon hasn’t commented on the shakeup yet. White, on the other hand, explained his side of things in a recent statement.

“Just to be clear, here is the story of what happened last Sunday,” White said. “I did in fact go down and tell the spotter of the 24 (driven by William Byron) that we were pitting, and he misinterpreted the information. That’s what happened.”

Ty Dillon didn’t make the playoffs this year, but he can still try to log his maiden win of the 2025 season. Next up for the driver is the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Scheduled for this coming Sunday, October 19, the 188-lap event will stream live on USA (2 pm ET onwards) with live radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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“I hate to say it”- Ty Dillon blames William Byron’s team for Las Vegas incident

While some thought that it was Ty Dillon who should have signalled William Byron about pitting, the Kaulig Racing driver himself felt otherwise. He was told that Byron’s spotter knew about Dillon getting to the pit road, so he did not wave his hand for Byron.

“I wasn’t even looking out of the rearview [mirror], I was just focused on hitting my marks getting to pit road,” Ty Dillon said in a statement. “I don’t think I was egregiously high or anything, just trying to get on pit road, and the next thing I knew, I was getting clobbered.”

Unlike Dillon, William Byron was racing for the championship. Despite starting inside the top five, Byron had to settle for a DNF, his fourth this season. The Hendrick Motorsports standout now sits 15 points below the cutoff line in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings.

“I hate to say it, but I believe it’s on them,” Ty Dillon continued. “I probably could have waved them off more egregiously, but I don’t know if he’d see that. I hate to ruin their day, but I don’t even know what we would do differently there.”

33 races into the season, Ty Dillon has amassed just one top-10. He sits 32nd in the driver standings with 447 points to his name. Byron, on the other hand, is ranked fifth with 4051 points, 10 top fives and 15 top-10s besides 970 laps led.