“I’m not proud of that but you absolutely have to do that.”
That sentiment from Sammy Smith was not shared by most of the NASCAR industry following a messy, messy Xfinity Series race on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway.
This was concerning his decision to drive three car lengths into Turn 3 to wipe out a race leading Taylor Gray but in the process denying himself a chance to win and costing teammate Justin Allgaier the $100,000 Xfinity Dash4Cash bonus too.
Smith had already used the bumper to get past Gray on the previous restart. Gray used objectively considerable restraint in only nudging past Smith on the final restart only to get blasted on the final corner.
Why was that his approach?
“It’s just, he has no respect for me and he was flipping me off under the red flag and swerving at my door,” Smith said after exiting the infield care center. “Going down the backstretch, I thought to myself, what would he do in this situation and he would have done the exact same thing.
“He was flipping me off and that was ultimately why I made the decision that was made.”
The industry was not impressed.
Gray, who led a career high 87 laps, felt like they were tit-for-tat until the finish.
“So like the whole interaction in Turn 1, where initially he moved me up the race track and he got the lead from me, and then I did the same thing to him,” Gray said. “I think that’s fair, right? We know we’re coming down to the end of the race. I was a little upset when he first hit me, just because I felt like I haven’t put a scratch on him all year. He could have raced me a little bit better. But then again, it’s Martinsville. I have to understand that that’s going to happen.
“But what he did getting into (turn) three, I mean, it completely takes no talent. All you’ve got to do is just let off the brake pedal and just clearly destroy me. So I don’t know. It ruins his race, too.”
Smith indicated there was lingering bad blood between the two.
“He said he wants to go at it,” Smith said. “I mean, we can go at it if he wants, but I think, yeah, at the end of the day, it’s probably going to be a lot more going forward, and that’s okay with me.”
Meanwhile, Hill found his way through and won the race, the 100th at the Xfinity Series level for Richard Childress Racing.
“I went into the restart there, I didn’t know if I wanted the top lane or the bottom lane,” Hill said. “I didn’t have a great top lane restart the restart before when I was in fourth so I just decided, my spotter Derek (Kneeland) and I, that the bottom was the safest bet.
“I didn’t know that I was going to win the race from seventh but I just knew it was the safest bet because when a lot of the wrecks happen, they wash up the race track. I was kind of honestly hoping the guys up front would get into a wreck and that I could get closer to the front and get another chance at it.
“When I came off 2, I had a really good run and I knew I was close to (Allgaier) and I knew that if (Allgaier) got into (Gray and Smith), I have a really good shot because I knew they would bottle up. They all started hitting each other and I got into the 7’s left rear and shoved him up the hill. As soon I saw daylight, I just throttled up the hill and we were beating and banging and I cleared him somehow off 4.”
Hill says he is ‘in disbelief’ and ‘still in disbelief’ that they won that race restarting seventh.
The finish has received a majority of the headlines, of course, but it was a messy finish to an even uglier race in which practically no one came away looking particularly great nor unscathed by the end of the race. Even NASCAR’s own highlights package was a crash compilation.
There were 14 cautions for 102 caution laps.
Allgaier was also not impressed.
This is where we’re at, this is where the racing is at and this is not acceptable,” Allgaier said. “I don’t care if it’s Sammy or if it’s (Gray).”
Smith is his JR Motorsports teammate.
“What I will say about Sammy is that the only thing I was upset about is that after he made his move on (Gray), he cut down and just ran right into me, right? I know why he did what he did, right?
“You just, go back how many years ago, 20 years ago, these problems didn’t happen. We didn’t race like this.”
Allgaier said that maybe the lesson he learned today is that he ‘should have,’ and he was being flippant, ‘shipped Smith into Gray’ and won that way.
“Using the bumper all day is one thing but blatantly wrecking people, (Gray) tried wrecking (Smith) and (Smith) tried wrecking (Gray) so I get why they’re upset. I’m upset because we lost the Dash4Cash and we lost a chance to win the race.”
Allgaier just said he hopes the racing improves come the playoff race in October.
“I just think of the Mark Martins, the Cale Yarbroughs, even the Dale Sr.s, right,” Allgaier said. “It was just one car incidents. It’s not what we’re seeing now. The cars being so resilient doesn’t help and it’s just the nature of where we’re at. I hate it but it is what it is.”
Hill echoed that sentiment.
“This is just a different era now,” Hill said. “The guys coming up through the ranks right now, they just don’t have any respect for each other. Look, I can be aggressive sometimes but I feel like I have a good amount of respect for my competitors. When it comes down to winning a race, there are certain things you will do to win, like Tony Stewart saying he’d wreck his mother or your mother to win, but I don’t know.”
Hill said respect ‘is just out the window’ on overtime finishes at Martinsville, especially.
“I hate to say that, I really do,” Hill said. “I wish, and I’m not the best one to speak on it, but I wish we could settle it down some more that it wasn’t so just beating, banging and knocking each other’s doors off and driving through people.
“I wish that we could race a different way than we do.”
Hill said he keyed up his microphone with 40 laps to go and said he hates what Martinsville has become.
“But I don’t know how you fix it,” Hill said. “Does NASCAR step in and start penalizing people for wrecking people on short tracks only? I don’t know. I don’t have an answer. After the race, getting in fights, I’ve been in fights before and that doesn’t fix it.
“Because when you come back to Martinsville in the fall, all those same guys that got into the fights, they’re going to do it again because they don’t care. I don’t know what the answer is. I wish Allgaier was here right now because he’s really good at answering these types of questions.
“I wish he was here right now because we could bounce some ideas off each other but I think a change needs to be made but I don’t know what it is. I really don’t.”
