MARTINSVILLE, Va. — NASCAR Cup Series drivers have a vested interest in how NASCAR reacts to the finish of Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway.
They want to see how NASCAR handles Sammy Smith knocking Taylor Gray out of the way for the lead in the final turn, resulting in both of them wrecking and Austin Hill slipping by for the win.
They need to see if NASCAR reacts for two main reasons:
— How and if the league penalizes Smith could indicate how it would rule if similar instances happen in the Cup Series.
— Any penalties will send a message to up-and-coming drivers on what NASCAR considers out of bounds.
“The sanctioning body needs to get involved a little bit and step in on egregious things,” said Denny Hamlin, who won the Cup race at Martinsville. “I think it’s continued to ramp up, right? We’ve seen this stuff.
“It used to only happen on green-white-checkereds. Then this place, it seemed like inside 20 [laps] to go, people would lose their minds. Those guys yesterday did it with 50 to go, absolutely just creaming each other. It was just horrible driving by most of the people out there. It’s just not a good look.”
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Hamlin knows something about penalties for intentionally wrecking another driver when it is not a dangerous right-rear hook. He was docked 25 points for intentionally wrecking Ross Chastain to gain positions in the final laps at Phoenix in 2023.
Last year, Austin Dillon had contact with Joey Logano and Hamlin between Turn 4 and the finish line at Richmond. Dillon was also docked 25 points and wasn’t allowed to use the win for an automatic bid to the playoffs.
Smith appeared to deliver a hard bump to Gray with no attempt to just get him loose to get by. He finished in 10th place. Taylor Gray was 29th, so a points penalty just to even things out could potentially be viewed as appropriate.
“I’m not proud of what I did,” Smith said.
But Smith also said he felt that is what he had to do to win the race.
“I know everyone is going to be mad and upset at me and say I’m a dirty driver, but I don’t care because everybody does it,” Simith said.
“And if I was just going to accept it and finish second today, then that just wasn’t going to sit well with me.”
What Smith did didn’t sit well with many.
Historically, racing is full of instances where race officials have to make calls on rough driving. And NASCAR’s emphasis on winning — especially when a playoff spot is on the line — has made drivers go beyond what they would normally believe is acceptable.
League officials didn’t penalize Smith after the race but indicated they would take a look at it during their evaluation of the race weekend.
NASCAR Senior Vice President Elton Sawyer told the Cup drivers during the meeting prior to their race: “Based on the truck race and last night, my key word will be respect.”
The Cup drivers certainly had their moments of frustration with each other, but the race didn’t seem to get to the point of ridiculousness.
“The Cup drivers respect each other more,” said Cup runner-up Christopher Bell. “[That Xfinity race] was absolutely infuriating. My blood was boiling inside the motorhome watching it. It was a disgrace for our sport, and that should not be tolerated.
“Not just the last lap, but the whole thing. We’ve got to hold ourselves to better standards. That was embarrassing.”
Smith drives for JR Motorsports, and team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. posted on X after several of the wrecks (before the last-lap debacle) that the race was not up to standards.
Bell made it a point at Circuit of the Americas to try to win in a clean manner. No Cup race has had an incident such as Dillon’s Richmond finish.
“The Cup races have been good, and they’ve been really fair and clean,” Bell said.
The drivers in the Xfinity Series also appear to know they need some stronger boundaries.
“Everybody is beating everybody’s doors off,” Hill said. “We’re just running into each other. … I had so much front-end damage, rear damage by the end of the race. It’s just comical to me how much we destroy our race cars.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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