Ahead of the Xfinity race at Darlington Raceway, NASCAR officials made the series’ drivers show up early — and then dropped the hammer. After last week’s chaos during the entire Martinsville race, officials made it clear: things are going to change, and boundaries have now been set.
An anonymous Xfinity driver has come forward saying NASCAR laid out specific punishments following last week’s out-of-control performance.
NASCAR Officials Lay Down the Law for Xfinity Series Drivers After an Embarrassing Show at Martinsville
The race went into overtime after the scheduled 250 laps. 102 laps were run under caution, with incidents scattered throughout. But the worst came on the final turn, when Sammy Smith dove into Taylor Gray, triggering chaos across the field.
After heavy criticism from fans and legends of the sport, NASCAR officials decided to take action.
According to a report by Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic, an anonymous driver revealed details of a closed-door meeting held at Darlington Raceway.
The report said, “NASCAR officials declined to speak after leaving, but one driver in the meeting, granted anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the meeting, said that NASCAR threatened to suspend any drivers who acted similarly in October’s Martinsville race and hold them out of the championship event at Phoenix Raceway.”
The report also said officials pushed drivers to help NASCAR “avoid making ball-and-strike calls on in-race penalties.” The message: clean up the racing or NASCAR will start making stricter calls.
While the Xfinity Series drivers were put on notice, Truck Series drivers didn’t get the same kind of talk. Things weren’t exactly clean in the third-tier race at Martinsville either — but the Xfinity Series stole the show.
Meanwhile, Smith — who quickly became the villain after his post-race comments about the wreck with Gray — has started to walk things back.
The JR Motorsports driver owned up to his mistake during the Darlington meeting. He said he’s made several apologies since the race, including one to the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team. He ended by saying he hopes to earn everyone’s respect as the season goes on.
As things currently stand inthe Xfinity Series standings, Justin Allgaier is in first place with 346 points, a full 71 points ahead of second place Sam Mayer. Austin Hill rounds out the top three with 267 points.
Smith, meanwhile, is in 11th place with 193 points and Gray is in 17th place with 171 points. Both drivers are still looking for their first Xfinity Series win of the season.