“He [Taylor Gray] just has no respect for me,” said Sammy Smith after absolutely wrecking the field on the last lap of the Marine Corps 250. Sounds pretty ironic, right? Saturday’s Xfinity race at Martinsville was everything short-track racing should not be. From shoving leaders out of the way to bumping cars at every other turn, it did not feel skilled at all. It felt like a superspeedway race taking place at ‘The Paperclip’!
“It was very refreshing and fun to see a clean race play out,” is not what Christopher Bell said after the Xfinity race on Saturday. These were his thoughts after the 2025 Cup Series race at the Circuit of The Americas. Bell won that race after some clean and hard racing to overtake Kyle Busch with 8 laps to go. So, what would an advocate of clean racing have to say after the disaster at Martinsville on Saturday? Well, he certainly did not hold back on his true feelings.
Christopher Bell couldn’t stomach what he saw on Saturday
Christopher Bell’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin, took the victory at Martinsville on Sunday after leading 274 laps in a dominant display of pure short-track prowess. Hamlin took the lead cleanly and never looked like relinquishing it. However, despite Hamlin’s 55th Cup Series win and 6th win at Martinsville, all the focus was still on the Xfinity drama. Even Hamlin said after his win, when asked about Saturday’s race, “Horrible driving by most of the people out there. And you know, it’s just not a good look.” So what happened on Saturday that has everyone up in arms?
Well, on the white flag lap, Taylor Gray from Joe Gibbs Racing was leading the race, trailed closely by JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith. The two had already been engaged in a long battle, swapping leads a couple of times. Gray raced clean, didn’t try to wreck Sammy for the lead, and passed him in the final stage. However, Smith had no regard for anyone’s safety on the last lap. Heading into the final turn, Smith spun Taylor Gray out of the race and, in the process, wrecked himself and a slew of drivers behind him. This led to Austin Hill – who was sixth when the white flag was waved- to sneak away with a victory as Gray finished 29th.
That is not how a short track race should end. This was something we would usually see at a superspeedway, like we did at the Daytona 500 in 2025, when William Byron avoided a late wreck to shoot up from 6th for 1st to win the race. Christopher Bell was quite vocal about his thoughts on racing clean after his aforementioned win at COTA and referenced that in his post-race interview. When asked by Matt Weaver after the race about what can be done to curb such recklessness, Bell said, “I don’t know, Something has to be done. I said on the podium at COTA said hopefully, this is a step in the right direction, and the Cup races have been good and fair and clean. Yesterday was absolutely embarrassing. Something needs to be done, and I don’t know where it starts.”
https://t.co/bwaNXoJfWJ pic.twitter.com/t5jIZkgNnC
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) March 30, 2025
Then, Christopher Bell went a step further. He called out the drivers for a sheer lack of respect and confessed to his heightened emotions while watching it unfold. Bell said, “The Cup drivers respect each other more.. Yesterday was absolutely infuriating. My blood was boiling inside the motorhome just watching it. It was a disgrace for our sport. That should not be tolerated, not the last lap, but just the whole thing. We gotta hold ourselves to better standards; that was embarrassing.” Bell was not alone in his criticism of the events that took place on Saturday.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., owner of Sammy Smith at JR Motorsports, took to X and wrote, “This racetrack is historic in the grand scheme of all things NASCAR and deserves better.” We agree; it certainly does. However, his driver, Sammy Smith, had opposing views as he blamed himself for the wreck but did not shy away from throwing shade on Taylor Gray, who was an innocent victim of Smith’s reckless driving.
“Absolutely, it was egregious,” Smith said about his move on Gray. “I’m not proud of it, but he would have done the exact same thing to me, roles reversed.” He pinned the blame on Gray, who had cleanly passed him earlier in the race. Smith also accused #54 of disrespecting him, saying, “He just has no respect for me; he was flipping me off under the red flag and swerving at my door.” Even if Gray did what Smith says he did, the former did not wreck the field on the last lap to create chaos. That was all Sammy Smith.
Evidently, the NASCAR world was furious at the events that took place, and long-time critic of NASCAR, Denny Hamlin, didn’t mince his words during or after the Xfinity drama.
Denny Hamlin holds NASCAR accountable for Martinsville madness
Martinsville Speedway just witnessed its most successful active driver dominate once again. Hamlin notched up his sixth Martinsville victory in grand style, waving an “11 against the world” flag while standing triumphantly atop his car. However, as he sat for the post-race press conference, questions poured in about Saturday’s Xfinity race, of which he was a vocal critic on X.
Hamlin posted during the race, “Absolute garbage,” and “God I wish I were in the booth. Id get fired but I damn sure would call these idiots out.” He was furious at the level of racing and elaborated further on NASCAR’s responsibility to make sure this doesn’t happen again. “I think that the sanctioned body needs to get involved a little bit and step in on egregious things… Certainly, you shouldn’t just be able to wipe someone out egregiously like what happened at the end of the race yesterday. We have a black flag for a reason, and I think we should start using it,” said Hamlin after the race on Sunday.
A black flag would mean that the driver would have to immediately go to the pits for a hazardous move or violating a rule. This is what Hamlin feels Smith and many others should have faced on Saturday. While it may seem harsh, destroying multiple cars because you want to win on the final lap is just not fair to anyone. Not the person you wreck, your team owner, or any owner involved in the ensuing crashes who has to pay significant amounts of money to fix the car.
So, while the weekend was a swelling success for Joe Gibbs Racing, their drivers certainly are not letting Sunday’s success cloud the events that occurred on Saturday. Do you think NASCAR will issue penalties for such moves in the future? Or is this just an unfortunate consequence of aggressive driving? Let us know in the comments!
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