NASCAR Chevy Driver Dumps Rival At Martinsville, Gets Penalized: Video

Short track racing – especially at Martinsville – is a guaranteed recipe for heated tempers both on and off the track. What started as an on-track altercation in the Xfinity Series between a NASCAR Chevy and Toyota driver ended with an infield confrontation, prompting officials to crack down and issue a rather severe penalty.

According to the latest penalty report from NASCAR.com, on the last lap of the Xfinity race on March 28^th, 2025, No. 8 NASCAR Chevy driver Sammy Smith lined up a shot to the back bumper of the No. 54 Toyota TRD Supra of Taylor Gray. The two drivers, who were racing for the lead, tangled when Smith rammed the back of Gray’s race car, sending Gray for a spin. Gray was knocked out of contention, while Smith went on to make contact with a teammate and trigger a pileup before wrecking himself. Austin Hill slipped by the crash to claim victory.

NASCAR officials deemed Smith’s on-track actions to be in violation of behavioral guidelines. He was docked 50 Xfinity Series points and fined $25,000, dropping him from sixth to 13^th in the series standings.

“We want to see really hard racing and door-to-door racing, and contact is certainly a part of the sport and part of the sport at Martinsville Speedway,” said Eric Peterson, Xfinity Series Managing Director. “We felt like after looking at all the facts, all the video, the team audio, SMT data and all the tools, we have to work with and review an incident like that. Unfortunately, what Sammy did was over the line and something that we feel like we had to react to. We would prefer to leave it in the driver’s hands but in this case, it wasn’t really a racing move and we reacted to it as such.”

After the race, Gray and Smith had a confrontation outside of the media center. NASCAR and team officials kept the two drivers separated, preventing things from coming to blows, but the intent between them was crystal clear.

Notably, Gray was also fined $5,000 for an unrelated confrontation with NASCAR Chevy Jeb Burton in the Martinsville infield care center after the race.