Sammy Smith, NASCAR Xfinity drivers shift tone after post-Martinsville meeting

New York Times

05-04-2025

DARLINGTON, S.C. — NASCAR driver Sammy Smith has been on an apology tour this week.
The penalized Xfinity Series racer, who was widely slammed after his controversial move at the end of last week's Martinsville Speedway race, told The Athletic on Saturday he made an error in judgment — striking a far different tone than an interview immediately after his blatant crash of race leader Taylor Gray.
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'Ultimately, I made a mistake, and hopefully I can be forgiven and move past it,' a contrite Smith said.
Smith spoke after an early-morning meeting between NASCAR officials and all Xfinity Series drivers, which the entire field was required to attend at Darlington Raceway after a messy Martinsville race that saw more than 100 caution-flag laps. Some drivers said they had to wake up at 4 a.m. in order to arrive at the track from their homes in Charlotte, with NASCAR clearly sending a message in the process.
NASCAR officials declined to speak after leaving, but one driver in the meeting, granted anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the meeting, said that NASCAR threatened to suspend any drivers who acted similarly in October's Martinsville race and hold them out of the championship event at Phoenix Raceway.
Officials prodded drivers to help NASCAR avoid making ball-and-strike calls on in-race penalties to clean up the racing, because 'we'll call strikes' if it continues.
But it was Smith who caught the brunt of the criticism this week after he intentionally wrecked Gray on the last lap and prevented the driver from winning a first career NASCAR race. Austin Hill, who had been in fifth place on the last lap, won instead, and even Smith's team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on his 'Dale Jr. Download' podcast he's never been so disappointed when leaving a racetrack in his life.
Smith was docked 50 points and fined $25,000 by NASCAR, which required him to meet with Gray on Friday before either of them began the race weekend. Then they were back early Saturday at Darlington to meet with officials and drivers again.
'Second meeting of the weekend,' Gray said as he walked into a large white tent in the garage.
Smith said he knew the move was wrong 'immediately after I did it,' but acknowledged it didn't take back either the move nor his unapologetic postrace interview — which only fueled the criticism from veteran drivers, crew members, fans and media.
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'Obviously with the decision I made last week, I've made a lot of apologies this week to a lot of different people,' Smith said, rattling off a list that included his team, his sponsors and even Gray's No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team. 'I would do a lot of things differently moving forward, and hopefully I can gain everybody's respect back as they go.'
Justin Allgaier, Smith's veteran teammate at JRM, told The Athletic his advice was 'what's done is done and the only thing you can do is make a better impression moving forward.'
'How he responds to this is going to be a difference-maker,' Allgaier said. 'This could be a career-defining moment for him. And I hope it will be for other drivers who won't have to make the same mistake he made last week.'
Allgaier and Hill both spoke in the meeting, with Allgaier saying he felt it was his obligation as one of the series' elders. He declined to go into specifics on what was discussed.
'The only people who can fix what happened on the racetrack is the people out there holding the steering wheels, and I want to leave the sport in a better place than it was when I got here,' Allgaier said.
Hill said his message in the meeting was to 'race the way you want to be raced.'
'If you're going in there and using that guy (in front of you) as a brake pedal and that happens four, five, six times with the same guy, eventually that guy is going to break,' Hill said.
Hill, who has a reputation for full-contact racing himself, spoke with Allgaier after the meeting, and the two drivers agreed to take more of a leadership role in guiding younger drivers in the series. There were eight rookies in the Martinsville race alone.
'(Allgaier) has different ways of looking at it than I do, but we can both bring our own perspective in a way and try to reach both (styles) of drivers,' Hill said.
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But Hill said Martinsville was an anomaly for an otherwise-great tour, adding the second-tier national series often has the best racing in NASCAR. It's just at Martinsville in particular, he said, where 'we look like we don't know what we're doing.'
That might not change for a race more than six months from now, Hill cautioned, and another reminder from officials could be necessary beforehand.
Otherwise, he said, 'I don't think one meeting is going to change the outcome of the playoff race at Martinsville,' he said.
Smith said that though the field had all been taking steps toward the line, he was the one who crossed it and thus accepts his penalty and the blowback.
'It sets a good precedent for everybody, and hopefully that makes our racing cleaner going forward,' Smith said.
(Photo of the chaotic finish at last weekend's Martinsville Xfinity Series race: Logan Riely / Getty Images)