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Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jordan Bianchi give the inside dirt on the Xfinity Drivers Only Meeting at Darlington

Brian Jones Profile Picby: Brian Jones04/17/25brianjones_93
Xfinity Series drivers
Mar 15, 2025; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Sammy Smith (8) leads the field for the start of the LiUNA! race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke to NASCAR insider Jordan Bianchi about a meeting Xfinity Series drivers had at Darlington earlier this month. On Dale Jr. Download, Bianchi told Earnhardt that the meeting was not good for the Xfinity Series drivers.

“As one driver explained to me, it was an ass chewing,” Bianchi said. “NASCAR came in there and was very clear about what is acceptable and what is not. They basically called out Sammy Smith and said how he drove at Martinsville is not acceptable.

“As I was told, it doesn’t take talent to drive the way he did at Martinsville and that this needs to clean up. A couple things out of this; NASCAR made it very known when he go back to Martinsville in the fall, if you guys drive like this and there’s incidents, we’re going to react and we’re going to park people at Phoenix, championship be damned. The other thing is NASCAR said, ‘We don’t want to be in the business of making balls and strikes calls. But if we have to make a call, we’re going to call strikes.’ That was kind of the tenor of the conversation.”

Jordan Bianchi tells Dale Earnhardt Jr. Xfinity the drivers only meeting should have happened later

Bianchi added, “It was good, though. Austin Hill and Justin Allgaier were the two drivers who spoke up. They’re both veterans of the series. Austin kind of acknowledged his role in some of the things. He said that afterwards, he talked to the media and everything. Justin said, ‘Hey, we need to do a better job.’ It’s a good meeting, it’s a good clear the air. But honestly, I don’t know if it’s warranted because this meeting needs to be held a couple of days before the fall Martinsville race as a reminder of like ‘Hey, let’s knock that s*** off and we need to now be cleaner going into that.”

Smith took a lot of heat after wrecking race leader Taylor Gray in the final laps at Martinsville. His actions led to NASCAR docking him 50 driver points and fining him $25,000. Sammy Smith has ties with Dale Earnhardt Jr. as he drives for JR Motorsports, the racing team Earnhardt co-owns with his sister Kelly Earnhardt Miller, Rick Hendrick and L.W. Miller.