Stanaway withdraws from Adelaide opener, Allen called up

Richie Stanaway will miss Race 23 at the VAILO Adelaide 500, with the New Zealander ruled out of Saturday's race due to delayed concussion symptoms.

Incoming Penrite Racing driver Kai Allen, who will replace Stanaway in 2025, was set to make his solo Supercars debut on Saturday afternoon. However, with Allen ineligible to race due to his Super2 commitments, Dale Wood was confirmed as the stand-in for the #26.

Stanaway crashed at Turn 8 on Friday afternoon, with the impact registered at 52G.

The 32-year-old was 19th in Practice 3 on Saturday morning, but was taken to the at-track medical centre before Saturday's Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout.

"Following consultation from Supercars medical delegates, it has been decided that Richie Stanaway will not compete in this afternoon’s Race 23 due to delayed concussion symptoms," a Penrite Racing statement reads.

"The decision was not made lightly, however it is imperative to Richie’s health and wellbeing that he unfortunately does not compete.

"A further test will be undertaken on Sunday morning to assess Richie’s capacity to compete. 

"Kai Allen will take over driving duties in Car 26 for Race 23."

Stanaway was the first of three drivers to clout the Turn 8 concrete on Friday, followed by Chevrolet drivers Cameron Hill and David Reynolds.

" He's not feeling too great. It seems like he's got some delayed concussion symptoms from his shunt yesterday," team boss Brenton Grove told the broadcast.

"It was quite a big hit. It was the biggest of all three in terms of G-force, it was completely side on. So, it's really not good for the brain.

"Richie mentioned he had some headaches and some symptoms that we probably were a little bit worried about. So, we've sent him straight after practice this morning to the medical centre to get checked and hasn't quite been cleared.

"So certainly for today, we just want to make sure that Richie rest sand he's 100 percent right. We'll do everything we can to get him back in the car tomorrow.

"But this track is brutal. There's a lot of concrete walls and we can't putting a driver at risk of getting worse conditions or having any sort of long-term injury."

Allen is fighting for the Super2 title, and is 90 points behind heading into Sunday's race. Prior to the second round of news, he was set to join Cooper Murray as an 11th hour call-up, with the latter replacing Jack Le Brocq at Erebus Motorsport.

"It's certainly a baptism of fire. But look, there's no expectations," Grove said of Allen.

"He's going to go and drive. He's going to have some fun and we'll see how he ends up at the end of the race.

"I's a daunting baptism of fire, but at the end of the day, this is what he's coming into next year. So, if we can keep him calm and just focus on finishing the race, that's what we're after."

Stanaway ended up 11th in qualifying, with teammate Matt Payne set to start fourth behind Cam Waters, Thomas Randle and Broc Feeney. Wood will start from the rear of the grid.

The 78-lap race will commence at 3:20pm local time/3:50pm AEDT. The race will be broadcast live on Foxtel (Fox Sports 506), Kayo and the Seven Network.