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Tommy Joe Martins reacts after fight with crew chief Joe Williams, crew member at Phoenix

JHby: Jonathan Howard11/02/25Jondean25
Tommy Joe Martins Alon Day
Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

In a bizarre turn of events, Alpha Prime Racing team owner Tommy Joe Martins got into a physical fight with his own crew chief and a crew member. Alpha Prime is a small team that gets by with what it can. So, what caused a fight on pit road after the race tonight?

Tommy Joe Martins was seen on pit road in a fight with crew chief Joe Williams and a crew member after the Phoenix race. It wasn’t clear at first what the altercation was about. Here is the end of that fight from Noah Lewis of TSJSports.

After the fight, Tommy Joe Martins explained the situation to Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic. It appears to be frustration over a set of tires that was not used in the race.

“Our team for the history of our team, whether it was Martins Motorsports with me driving or Alpha Prime,” Martins told Bianchi. “We are a small budget team, we very often get tires from the Truck Series. We very often get tires from other teams when they fall out of a race. Because it is cheaper than buying full allotment tires. We do this all the time.

“There was a set that came from the Truck Series that the crew chief didn’t like. Obviously, it’s his decision to not put them on the car, but when you put on 11 lap tires instead of putting on a set that’s a mock qualifying set, you’re generally going to fall back a little further in the race.”

Tommy Joe Martins gets into fight over tires

Tommy Joe Martins explained that there was an apparent issue with the set he purchased. Instead of calling it to his attention, Williams decided to just forgo using the tires completely.

His crew chief didn’t want to put a set of Truck Series tires that Martins had purchased. Alpha Prime often buys extra tires from Truck and Xfinity teams. It’s what they have to do to make it make sense financially.

Parker Retzlaff’s No. 4 car has had leased engines at times this season. It was, ideally going to be the better car for APR this year. There were moments when it was, the Rockingham race and finishing P2 (after Jesse Love’s DQ) was massive. But things just didn’t work out the rest of the season.

Clearly, tonight was frustrating for all involved. Perhaps it was a frustrating season for Alpha Prime and Tommy Joe Martins as a whole with that 4 team. Still, it isn’t often you see a fight on pit road between a crew chief and his team owner.

It will be very interesting to see if Joe Williams returns to Alpha Prime next season. The 2026 plans for the organization are still up in the air as of right now.