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Mike Joy, Kevin Harvick slam ‘dumpster fire’ Xfinity Series after Martinsville drama

JHby: Jonathan Howard03/30/25Jondean25
Kevin Harvick
Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images

The NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday night was so bad, that even Mike Joy and Kevin Harvick are talking about it today. Hours after the disastrous final stage in that Xfinity race, the sport is still talking about what happened.

Mike Joy has been around for decades. He has seen it all in this sport. Kevin Harvick has been part of it all as a driver. There are hardly two people better suited to talk about this issue than them.

During the Cup Series broadcast, Joy and Harvick both took shots at the Xfinity Series. It is deserved, too.

“Harsh words afterwards and probably more to come,” Joy said. “Because Sammy Smith, not only did he not apologize, he tried to justify what he did.”

“He tried to justify it,” Harvick added. “But it’s definitely not what we all want to watch and not the racing that we were brought up in. It would’ve been better to just make the call on the spot than wait to penalize a move like that. It’s unfortunate that we had to watch all that.”

That wasn’t the end of the criticism, either. Things went even further.

Mike Joy, Kevin Harvick on Xfinity ‘dumpster fire’

Just to take it up another level, Mike Joy had more to say after Kevin Harvick. And he put it perfectly.

“I’m sorry, I said the Xfinity Series is a dumpster fire, it’s not,” Joy continued. “A dumpster fire is contained. And that series is not right now. So this morning, NASCAR Director of Competition Elton Sawyer said in the driver’s meeting, he referenced those two races and he said a key word in the tower today is going to be ‘respect.’”

Elton Sawyer issued what was basically a warning to the Cup Series. The word of the day is “respect,” and if they don’t have that tonight – NASCAR is likely to step in and throw out a few penalties.

Mike Joy and Kevin Harvick are both right. Things went far over the line last night. It was so bad that the Truck Series has more or less gotten off the hook for a pretty bad showing, too.

Sammy Smith is likely going to get penalized by NASCAR. Officials are at least looking at the situation to determine if that is the way this needs to go. With little to no remorse, Smith might have dug himself a deeper hole after the race than if he had just said nothing.