The Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway Saturday night ended in an ugly mess that angered drivers and left several of the sport’s top broadcasters calling out NASCAR, and the drivers, for not cleaning up their act.
First, for those who missed the race, Sammy Smith ran up on leader Taylor Gray in overtime on the final lap and bumped him out of the way. Smith got collected in the multicar crash that followed, as Austin Hill won.
A replay of the #NASCAROvertime finish at @MartinsvilleSwy. pic.twitter.com/fGJecynkQT
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) March 29, 2025
During Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville, the entire NASCAR on Fox booth called for NASCAR to take action to get the Xfinity Series drivers under control. Play-by-play announcer Mike Joy noted this was not an isolated case of drivers racing too aggressively.
“I said the Xfinity Series was a dumpster fire, it’s not,” Joy said. “A dumpster fire is contained, and that series is not right now.”
“It’s not what we all wanna watch and not the racing that we were brought up in,” Kevin Harvick said. “It’s unfortunate that we had to watch all that.”
Clint Bowyer, like Harvick a former Xfinity Series champion before going on to NASCAR Cup stardom, noted, “That needs to be a penalty. If it’s that blatant and that outlandish, that is a simple answer to me.”
The @FOXNASCAR booth sounds off on the end of the Xfinity Series race last night. Pretty strong takes from all three.
Mike Joy: “I said the Xfinity Series was a dumpster fire, it’s not. A dumpster fire is contained, and that series is not right now.”
Kevin Harvick: “It’s not… pic.twitter.com/yD6IyWL05T— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) March 30, 2025
Bowyer alluded to the prerace meeting before Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race, where drivers were warned that the key word in race control would be “respect.”
“Just to say respect is going to fix it, well then they need to get out of the way with those security guys and let those guys learn about respect,” Bowyer said, hinting that some post-race scuffles might teach some hard lessons on pit road.
Joy, Harvick and Bowyer weren’t the only NASCAR broadcasters blasting Saturday’s finish. Amazon Prime/TNT analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr. posted on X, “This racetrack is historic in the grand scheme of all things NASCAR and deserves better.”
NASCAR star Denny Hamlin, host of the popular Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin podcast, called the race finish “absolute garbage” and added in another post, “God I wish I were in the booth. I’d get fired but I damn sure would call these idiots out.”
NASCAR on NBC analyst Jeff Burton p0sted on X, “Some of these guys needed to have the experience of racing with Jack Ingram and Tommy Ellis,” referring to two legendary driver in the series’ early days who would settle such issues with payback, either on the track or after a race.
As Joy humorously noted, the first step in solving a dumpster fire is to put out the fire. That’s now up to NASCAR.
About Arthur Weinstein
Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.