NASCAR officials met with the entire field of Xfinity Series drivers early Friday morning before any track activity at Darlington Raceway – a meeting triggered by an especially aggressive showing for the series at the Martinsville (Va.) Speedway short track a week ago – a race so chaotic that Chase Elliott – a former Xfinity Series and NASCAR Cup Series champ – called it “embarrassing” for the sport.
Although aggressive moves characterized much of the second half of the race, a big wreck on the final lap started up front with then leaders – Joe Gibbs Racing’s Taylor Gray and JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith – precipitated some angry confrontations post-race. Gray (off track) and Smith (on track) were both penalized for their actions.
Veteran Austin Hill was the big beneficiary of the on-track situation between the two, driving through the melee up front to claim his second win of the year – credited with only leading that last lap. Hill shared that the meeting went well and that he expects his fellow drivers to be more mindful of the way they race going forward, calling NASCAR very “firm” in its morning message.
“I think it’s going to calm down a lot more than you think today,” Hill said of Saturday afternoon’s Sports Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington. “We’ll have to wait and see but I think we’re all going to still be aggressive and trying to win the race but it’s going to be a very respectful race.”
The series’ next trip to Martinsville in late October determines which four Playoff drivers advance to the Championship 4 with a shot to win the 2025 title.
“NASCAR made it very clear they don’t want to be in the ball-and-strike business, they don’t want to be making all these calls so they said for us to help them with that,’’ Hill said. “They [NASCAR] also said if they have to step in and start making calls and black-flagging people and parking people and all those things, they’ll do it. I agree with where NASCAR stands with that but I also think we in the Xfinity Series need to do a better job going forward and not putting it in NASCAR’s hands.’’
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