On the final lap of last weekend's NASCAR Xfinity race, Sammy Smith drove deep into the final corner in an effort to intentionally wreck race leader Taylor Gray. He succeeded, but wrecked himself in the process as a multi-car incident broke out.
Neither driver won the race and after outcry from several industry leaders, NASCAR chose to penalize Smith. He was later docked 50 points and fined $25,000. However, NASCAR went a step further, holding an early-morning meeting with the Xfinity field just hours before Saturday's race at Darlington. Attendance was mandatory.
Firm but fair
Austin Hill, who drove through the chaos to win at Martinsville, spoke about the sit-down and his thoughts surrounding it. “I would say the tone of the meeting was firm, but they got their point across and they did it in a really good way," explained the Richard Childress Racing driver. "So I think that was good for everyone in the series to hear, you know, the different sides of it with all three that were in there.
"A lot of great things were said about what we could do better going forward. [sic] When the Xfinity Series go to Martinsville, we just lose our minds. But everywhere else, we're the best racing in NASCAR and I strongly stand behind that... we are the best series in NASCAR. Just when you go to Martinsville, we look like we don't know what we're doing. So we're going to get through it. We have, whatever it is, seven or eight months before we go back to Martinsville. I'm hoping a lot of things, you know, change between now and then."
However, Hill doesn't believe the meeting will change what has become commonplace at Martinsville when the series returns there in the fall with a coveted spot in the Championship 4 on the line.
"It might be one of those cases where we need to have multiple meetings throughout the year just to reiterate some of the stuff," continued Hill. "Even if things aren't happening on the racetrack, even if it's just a -- say we're all racing clean and we're all doing the right things, but I think we got to keep it in everyone's head that, you know, race the way you want to be raced and race with respect, and I thought that that's kind of where we ended the conversation today and I thought it was all great.”
And as one of the veteran drivers in the series with double-digit race wins, Hill is in a unique position to set an example for the rest of the field. It's not something lost on him, saying: “I'm kind of taking a different role on things that I say outside of the race car versus things that I do inside the race car. In saying all that, I think that Justin [Allgaier, reigning Xfinity Series champion] and I can bring a lot to the table on trying to lead the Xfinity Series. I think that him and I, both being veterans of the sport, he has different ways of looking at it than what I do but I think that we both can kind of bring our own perspective in a way and kind of reach both, you know, eras of drivers, as far as the super aggressive ones and maybe the ones that race extremely clean, whatever. I think that him and I can give a lot of feedback to the drivers.”
NASCAR doesn't want to get involved
As for further involvement from the sanctioning body, NASCAR made it clear that they don't want to be making in-race calls on reckless driving if they can help it. It's not something the drivers want either.
“Well, NASCAR made it very, very clear that they don't want to be in the ‘ball and strike’ business," explained Hill. "They don't want to be making all these calls. So they said for us to help them with that. They also said that if they had to step in and start making calls, black flagging people, parking people and doing all those things, that they'll do it. So I agree with what NASCAR's stance is at but I also think that we as the Xfinity Series have to do a better job going forward when we go back to Martinsville and not put it in NASCAR's hands.
"We don't want NASCAR to get involved and to have to make these ‘ball and strike’ calls. We don't want that as drivers. We want to be able to race and beat and bang and do all these things but do it in a respectful way. So there's a lot of things that we all got to look in the mirror, even myself included. We all as drivers have to look in the mirror and figure out what we can do to move forward and not have NASCAR get involved.”
