NASCAR officials to review Sammy Smith last lap move on Taylor Gray at Martinsville
NASCAR officials will evaluate the last lap move from Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Martinsville, per Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. Sammy Smith slammed into race-leader Taylor Gray on the final corner, taking them both out of contention and allowing Austin Hill to drive by to take the checkered flag.
Pockrass believes NASCAR will likely compare the incident to Austin Dillon at Richmond this past August. Dillon took out both Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano on the final lap to win. Days later, NASCAR docked him 25 points and removed his playoff eligibility. Dillion kept the win. In this case, neither Smith nor Gray won the race. Smith slid across the start/finish line 10th, while Gray finished 29th.
Contact was plentiful between drivers in the US Marine Corps 250. In total, there were 102 caution laps. Only 11 Xfinity races have had more than 100 caution laps, according to Seth Eggert of Motorsports Reference. Sure, the Smith-Gray incident wasn’t a caution, but it was the pivotal moment in the race.
Sammy Smith, Taylor Gray exchange words after Martinsville finish
Smith and Gray exchanged words after the race and had to be separated before things turned physical. Smith, who took out a majority of the field, called the move “egregious.” At the same time, he felt it was a move he had to make.
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“I mean, absolutely, it was egregious. I mean, yeah, I’m not proud of that, but I mean, if roles were reversed, he would have done the same thing,” Smith said on The CW postrace coverage. “He’s got no respect for me. I didn’t move him those first prior restarts and you know, he was flipping me off under the red flag, swerving at me, you know, it’s definitely uncalled for and I’m not proud of it, but he would have done the exact same thing, and that’s what I told him. You know, we’ll see what happens after that.”
Does this mean the end of this feud? Oh, no. Don’t expect that to happen any time soon.
“From his end, I’m sure not and I’m not going to let him have the last bite,” Smith said. “So, we’ll see.”
On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this report.