NASCAR will gather its Xfinity Series drivers this weekend to review the caution-plagued race at Martinsville Speedway that ended with a retaliatory crash on the last lap.
“Our plans are before we run the event (Saturday) at Darlington is to have a meeting with all the Xfinity Series drivers, just the drivers only,” Xfinity Series managing director Eric Peterson said during an episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast. “We had one of these meetings at Daytona prior to the season starting. I feel like it went pretty well. We’ve had six really good races to start off the Xfinity Series season in 2025. And unfortunately, Martinsville was our seventh and didn’t go quite as good.
“And some of that, obviously, is a product of the short track that is Martinsville Speedway and the beating and banging that goes on there. But there were some other things in the race that were certainly pushing the boundaries of clean, good, hard racing.”
While the actions of Taylor Gray and Sammy Smith (who was docked 50 points and fined $25,000 for wrecking Gray from the lead) drew the most attention, Peterson said there was dubious driving throughout the field. He noted that the longest green-flag run after the first two caution flags was eight laps.
“So that’s obviously not what we’re looking for,” Peterson said. “So we’re certainly going to talk to the drivers and address that and obviously get their feedback on how they feel it went and what we can do going forward to make that better to get back to the good, hard, clean racing Xfinity Series is known for.”
During the podcast, Peterson and NASCAR managing director of racing communications Mike Forde also explained NASCAR didn’t penalize Smith immediately after the race because the last-lap timing of the incident made it difficult to gather all of the facts in a timely manner.
“We do have a lot of tools at our disposal between in the tower we’d have some camera angles we can look at, but waiting allows us the time to look at driver and team audio and SMT data and driver interviews to put the whole piece of the puzzle together before making this decision,” Peterson said. “I think the most important thing is that we get the decision right instead of having the decision right now.”
Forde said it would be a “nightmare scenario” if NASCAR made a call that affected the outcome of a race, and evidence later emerged that undermined the decision.
“I think the example of a scenario that could happen is if we took a car back to postrace tech, and that the brake pedal went all the way to the floor (because) the brakes just went out and that’s why that happened, and we DQ’d or black flagged that car and took the win away,” Forde said. “There’s no coming back from that. So in this instance, I think that’s where the decision was made. We looked at it and said, ‘Hey, let’s get the facts first here.’ I think there will be scenarios in the future where we do use the black flag, but we erred on the side of caution on that one.”
Peterson said NASCAR still would issue in-race penalties (such as holding a car for a lap or sending it to the rear) “if the circumstance is obvious. … The high-stakes decisions, especially at the end of the race, we just need to make sure that we have all the facts before we pull the trigger on that decision so that we ensure that we’re making the right decision.”
Forde said NASCAR officials also would talk to Xfinity team owners and principals this weekend about Martinsville.
“I think there are going to be some conversations over the weekend saying, ‘Hey, listen, this is also on you to help fix this problem,’ ” Forde said. “And it’s really the entire garage. I think NASCAR plays a role in trying to fix this. The drivers need to self-police. Spotters need to be involved. Crew chiefs need to be involved, and team principals and owners need to be involved. And I think everyone needs to understand that this is just not on NASCAR to fix this problem.
“Everyone needs to step up and understand that these actions shouldn’t be tolerated. And if it happens again, then you’re going to be battered around from all directions.”
