Taylor Gray wasn’t supposed to win at Martinsville. Not this race. Not this way. But under the buzzing lights and flying tempers of the paperclip, the 19-year-old turned a grudge into glory, muscling his way through NASCAR Overtime to grab his first career Xfinity Series victory Saturday night — and, in the process, remind everyone that revenge in NASCAR usually comes with a trophy.
This wasn’t just a win. It was payback. The last time Gray and Sammy Smith met here in the spring, Smith moved Gray in the final corner, stole the win, and set off a post-race dust-up outside the infield care center that looked like something out of a short-track soap opera. Saturday night, Gray got even — and did it cleanly, holding off Smith in the final two laps like a man determined to exorcise a demon with horsepower.
“I feel like it was a rocky race there getting behind on track position,” Gray said, still catching his breath in Victory Lane. “We wanted to capitalize on our day and make the most of it. I really think we had the truck we had — we just needed to execute.”
Execute he did. While the playoff chaos unfolded like a demolition derby directed by Hitchcock, Gray stayed calm, cool, and just far enough ahead of the drama. Behind him, the playoff picture looked like someone had shaken a snow globe full of points standings.
JR Motorsports teammates Connor Zilisch and Justin Allgaier were already locked into the Championship 4 heading into the race. Jesse Love and Carson Kvapil sat above the cutline but spent the night trying to throw it all away. Love earned two pit road penalties for his trouble, while Kvapil’s race turned into a heart attack on four wheels when he was spun in the final 50 laps.
Kvapil had earlier won Stage 2 and looked ready to lock himself into Phoenix with a win. Then came the spin, a few words that can make any driver’s blood pressure hit redline. “It was probably the most nerve-wracking racing I’ve done in my career,” Kvapil said. “We were in a good spot before we got turned around. When that happened, I thought we were done.”
He wasn’t. Kvapil clawed back nine positions and found himself barely back above the cutline when Daniel Dye spun with five laps to go, setting up NASCAR Overtime. Suddenly, every playoff driver in the top five was racing for their lives — and for the right to still have one next week at Phoenix.
Brandon Jones gambled on the inside line for the restart. Smith took the outside. Neither mattered. Gray launched like a scalded cat, leaving them both staring at his bumper as the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota took the checkered flag and a bit of poetic justice.
Behind him, Smith crossed second, Jones third, Sheldon Creed fourth, and Aric Almirola fifth. Jeb Burton, Sam Mayer, Dean Thompson, Zilisch, and Modified Tour star Justin Bonsignore rounded out the top 10.
For Mayer, Creed, and Jones, Martinsville marked the end of their playoff road. For Love and Kvapil, it was a white-knuckled ticket to Phoenix, joining Allgaier and Zilisch in the Championship 4 — all but guaranteeing a Chevrolet driver will hoist the Xfinity championship trophy next week.
Three straight races, three non-playoff winners. Austin Hill at Talladega. Aric Almirola at Vegas. And now Taylor Gray at Martinsville — proving that, in NASCAR’s version of October Madness, sometimes the only way to make headlines is to wreck the script entirely.
The Xfinity Series championship will be decided next Saturday night at Phoenix Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET on The CW). It’ll also mark the final race with Xfinity as the title sponsor — fitting, then, that this season has ended exactly how it started: loud, unpredictable, and just the right amount of unhinged.
Because if you want calm and predictable, you don’t watch Martinsville on a Saturday night.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour 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, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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