Well, that didn’t take long. Just days after an Xfinity Series race at Martinsville that looked more like a demolition derby than a professional motorsports event, NASCAR officials have thrown the book at Sammy Smith for his late-race antics.
In case you missed it, Smith decided that the best way to win wasn’t to pass Taylor Gray but to simply bulldoze him out of the way. On the final lap of Saturday’s Marine Corps 250, Smith’s No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet became less of a race car and more of a battering ram, slamming into the back of Gray’s No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The impact sent Gray spinning through Turns 3 and 4, stacking up half the field and clearing the way for Austin Hill to sneak through the carnage and steal his second win of the season.
NASCAR, not particularly amused by Smith’s interpretation of “rubbing is racing,” has handed him a 50-point deduction in the Xfinity standings and a $25,000 fine. It’s the sporting equivalent of being sent to the principal’s office with a note that says, “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith, your son keeps breaking expensive toys.”
Xfinity Series Managing Director Eric Peterson made it clear that while NASCAR enjoys some good old-fashioned hard racing, Smith had gone a step too far.
“We want to see really hard racing and door-to-door racing, and contact is certainly a part of the sport and part of the sport at Martinsville Speedway,” Peterson told NASCAR.com. “We felt like after looking at all the facts, all the video, the team audio, SMT data and all the tools, we kind of have to work with and review an incident like that. Unfortunately, what Sammy did was over the line and something that we feel like we had to react to. We would prefer to leave it in the driver’s hands but in this case, it wasn’t really a racing move and we reacted to it as such.”
Of course, Smith wasn’t exactly apologetic. In a post-race confrontation outside the infield care center, he all but admitted that he took Gray out on purpose, citing some previous on-track “gestures” and swerving as justification for sending Gray’s car into next week. Smith finished 10th. Gray, after leading 87 laps, finished 29th, which is about as much fun as biting into what you think is a chocolate chip cookie only to find out it’s oatmeal raisin.
Meanwhile, NASCAR also wasn’t thrilled with how Gray and Jeb Burton handled themselves after the wreck. Both were fined $5,000 for conduct violations after officials determined they had crossed a line in the infield care center. NASCAR’s Managing Director of Racing Communications, Mike Forde, summed it up like a disappointed parent.
“Taylor and Jeb were in the care center post-race and there was some behavior that we felt stepped over the line as far as interrupting a medical situation,” Forde said. “The care center is almost an on-site hospital, so the drivers and any competitor that enters that area, there should be a sense of decorum there.”
In other words: If you’re going to throw a tantrum, take it outside.
This whole mess was eerily similar to last year’s Richmond race in the Cup Series, when Austin Dillon decided that traditional overtaking was overrated and simply shoved Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin out of his way on the final lap. NASCAR wasn’t impressed back then, either, docking Dillon 25 points and declaring that his win wouldn’t count toward the playoffs.
And just when you thought NASCAR officials were done handing out punishments, they also suspended two pit-crew members from Trackhouse Racing after Shane van Gisbergen’s No. 88 Chevrolet shed a wheel during Sunday’s Cup Series race. The right-rear tire went rogue on Lap 274 of the Cook Out 400, sending van Gisbergen into a spin and triggering an automatic two-race suspension for rear-tire changer Jonpatrik Kealey and jackman Aslan Pugh.
As for more minor infractions, Sheldon Creed’s Xfinity team and Rajah Caruth’s Truck Series team were both fined for loose lug nuts, proving once again that in NASCAR, even the small stuff comes with a price tag.
So there you have it: One driver fined for turning his car into a wrecking ball, two others fined for inappropriate behavior in the infield medical center, two pit crew members suspended for allowing a tire to make a break for freedom, and two teams fined for not tightening their wheels properly. Just another week in NASCAR, where the only thing more aggressive than the racing is the rule enforcement.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.