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XFINITY: Tempers Boil Over in Over-the-Line Finish at Martinsville

Toby Christie|
John K Harrelson, LAT Images for Toyota GAZOO Racing

Austin Hill emerged victorious in Saturday night's NASCAR Xfinity Series US Marine Corps 250 at Martinsville Speedway, but the only people who will likely remember that fact are Hill and his No. 21 Richard Childress Racing team.

It's not that a win by Hill isn't usually memorable, but Hill's 12th career win was overshadowed by the late-race chaos, which ensued to make the driver's win possible in the first place.

Taylor Gray, a Rookie of the Year contender who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, seemed to have his first career win in hand as he had led 66 consecutive laps near the end of the race, but a multi-car crash brought out the caution on Lap 242. This caution sent an already nutty race into overdrive.

On the Lap 249 restart, Sammy Smith drove into Turn 1 super deep and shipped Gray into the outside lane. It looked like Smith had executed a perfect bump-and-run, but the timing was ultra-unfortunate as Matt DiBenedetto would spin moments after the move was made.

This would give the 20-year-old Gray a chance to reclaim what had been taken from him. As the race went green for the overtime finish attempt, Gray gave Smith exactly what he had been given the restart before as he shipped Smith up the track in Turn 1.

Not willing to concede defeat, Smith opted to obliterate the rear bumper of Gray's No. 54 car heading into Turn 3 on the final lap. The contact would send Gray spinning, but Smith wouldn't be able to get away scot free. As Smith's car lost momentum, Hill got by for the race lead, and Smith's JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier collided with his No. 8 Chevrolet, which sent Smith spinning as well.

A massive melee ensued on the final lap, and when the dust settled, Gray was credited with a 29th-place finish, while Smith was scored as finishing 10th.

Crossing the finish line behind Hill was Sheldon Creed, who notched his 14th career runner-up finish. The Haas Factory Team driver is still seeking his maiden NASCAR Xfinity Series win. It'll have to wait at least another week.

Allgaier finished in third, and he was followed by Brennan Poole, and Sam Mayer in fourth and fifth. But again, the finishing order of Saturday's race wasn't the big story of the night. That belonged to the two drivers, who had been battling for the win over the final chunk of laps.

As Smith reached the infield car center to be evaluated after being involved in the on-track chaos, he was met by an angry Gray, who confronted his competitor inside the doorway of the medical facility housed within the infield of Martinsville Speedway. After a few moments of disagreement inside the care center, NASCAR Security got the two drivers to finish their heated discussion outside the care center.

Unpleasantries were exchanged, and before the two were split up, Gray threatened to fight Smith to which Smith encouraged Gray to do so. Gray would walk away from the scene without throwing hands.

While briskly strolling back to his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra on pit road, Gray said he chose to confront Smith to ensure that Smith knew he wasn't happy with being crashed.

"It doesn't really matter. It kind of stays between us, that's kind of why we had it without media around there. You know, it wasn't a very good conversation, it didn't really go anywhere. They never do. I just wanted to make sure he knew I was frustrated, and was not happy with just getting dumped," Gray explained.

Adding to the frustration for Gray is the fact that he lost last Fall's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at Martinsville Speedway in the same fashion, albeit less spectacularly, as Christian Eckes shoved his way past Gray for the win as Gray finished fourth.

After his trip to the infield care center, Smith said that he got to pushing and shoving with Gray in the closing laps because he doesn't feel that Gray races him with respect.

"It's unfortunate. I'm not very proud of that, of what I did, it's just he has no respect for me," Smith said. "He was flipping me off under the red flag, and swerving at my door. I moved him into [Turn] 1, he still had the lead in those two restarts, and I am going down the backstraightaway I thought to myself, 'What would he do in this situation?' And he would have done the exact same thing. He was flipping me off, and to me, that was the line for me."

Also going through Smith's head was that he wasn't content with finishing in second. The driver, who has two career NASCAR Xfinity Series wins, wanted to add a Martinsville Grandfather Clock to his collection of trophies at home, and if he didn't get back to Gray, that chance was over.

"I mean if I just let him go, then I accept that I finished second today," Smith said. "And I try to do my best for my team, and myself to win a clock, and it wasn't good enough."

Instead of simply accepting he had been beat, and taking a runner-up finish, Smith finished 10th, and he ensured that he will not receive a Christmas card from his former race team -- Joe Gibbs Racing.

Smith says if Gray wants to fight him to settle their differences, he is fine with that, but he expects the feud will boil over into more on-track incidents between the two in the future.

"He said he wants to go at it, and we can go at it if he wants. But I think at the end of the day, probably going to be a lot more going forward, and that's okay with me," Smith said.

Gray wasn't the only driver upset with Smith after the race. Following his post-care center interviews, Smith was confronted by Harrison Burton, who was upset about his day being derailed due to an early-race incident where Smith ran into the back of Corey Day, which sent Day crashing into Burton.

Here is a video of the incident that ruined a potential top-10 day for Burton:

Burton had been running eighth prior to the incident caused by Smith's actions. In the discussion with Burton, Smith said that he will watch the replay of the incident in question and if he sees that it is his fault, he will certainly apologize to Burton and admit he was wrong.

That was enough to appease Burton, and Burton walked away.

Harrison Burton wasn't the only member of the Burton family, who was left seething after Saturday night's chaotic race at Martinsville. His cousin Jeb Burton was also fuming after a trip to the infield care center, but Burton wasn't bent out of shape about Smith.

Jeb's frustrations were about how he was raced by Kaulig Racing driver Daniel Dye in the closing laps of the event.

"Earlier with about 20 [laps] to go or 30 to go, he just dove it off in there three-wide on a restart and cleaned out somebody. He's just racing over his head," Burton stated. "And then the last lap, he just sailed it off in there into [Turn] 1 and knocked me up the hill for no reason. And then down [in Turns 3 and 4], he did the same thing. He's just driving over his head with no respect, so, I just came down here to tell him I didn't appreciate it."

Burton says if Dye wants to continue racing the way he raced in the closing laps, he has an easy solution to cure the problem.

"If he wants to race like that, I'll put him over the grandstands the next time we're here," Burton lashed out. "He's just disappointed because he runs like s--t every week, and they're spending $6 million and he can't get it done. And he's 20th in points, so he's just racing like an idiot."

Burton says its the continuation of a disturbing trend in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, where drivers decide to run over one another rather than pass cleanly with respect.

"It's just everybody running over -- I don't drive like that, you know? There's a couple of guys that don't drive like that and then everybody else is just running over everybody for no damn reason, and it's just uncalled for," Burton said. "I don't know. It's frustrating, and I race people with respect. And tonight, all the way up through the field, you could see that people weren't racing with respect at all. It's frustrating, you know I don't want to tear up my race car, and that's what I was trying to tell his ass. We don't need to do that for ninth. We don't need to do that, but he's not going to learn. He's going to have to learn the hard way. It is what it is."

Despite crashing his car on the final lap, Burton still came home with an 11th finish, which continues what has been a really good season for the Jordan Anderson Racing driver. Dye would finish the event in the seventh position, and now sits one spot behind Burton in the NASCAR Xfinity Series standings in 12th.

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Toby Christie
TOBY CHRISTIE

Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.

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