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By Saajan Jogia
Sports Contributing Writer
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NASCAR's Xfinity Series race at Martinsville witnessed chaos after Sammy Smith crashed into race leader Taylor Gray in the last lap of the race, causing them both to compromise their strong race positions. This led to Gray confronting Smith physically, sparking debate among NASCAR insiders on whether that should be allowed.
The crash triggered a chain reaction that damaged several cars and led Austin Hill to secure a surprise victory. Later on, The Athletic's Jordan Bianchi posted footage of what unfolded outside the infield care center, where Gray and Smith almost got physical. The security present on the spot separated the angry drivers.
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The on-track and off-track controversy raised eyebrows, leading several experts to criticize the act. Jeff Gluck of The Athletic and Jordan Bianchi spoke about the chaos now making headlines, in The Teardown podcast. Here's what Bianchi said about the brawl between Gray and Smith:
"You can't have that outside the Care Center. I'm okay with fighting, but you have to be careful of guys just going at it crazy. At what point do you step in? Like, when you get two punches? At what point do you step in?"
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Gluck replied:
"Probably after somebody's on the ground like in hockey."
Bianchi argued that things could have gone out of hand had the security not stepped in:
"Last night would have gotten ugly. It would have gotten ugly if they had not kept them separated."
Gluck responded: "Isn't that how racing has been over the years, over the decades? You do something, you're at a short track, you get punched in the face and you decide whether that is something you want to be involved in?"
Bianchi said: "No one punched Dale Earnhardt. He kept doing what he's doing."
Smith said after the Xfinity race that he wasn't proud of what had happened and stressed that Gray would have done the same thing if the roles were reversed. Newsweek Sports reported:
"I mean, absolutely, it was egregious. I mean, yeah, I'm not proud of that, but I mean, if roles were reversed, he would have done the same thing. He's got no respect for me. I didn't move him those first prior restarts and you know, he was flipping me off under the red flag, swerving at me, you know, it's definitely uncalled for and I'm not proud of it, but he would have done the exact same thing, and that's what I told him. You know, we'll see what happens after that."
He added:
"I mean, it's unfortunate, you know, he's – if you're not the one doing it, someone's going to do it to you. Everyone's gonna dog on me and I'm not proud of that but at the end of the day, it's what you got to do. So, we'll move on to Darlington."
Considering the backlash received for the controversy, it remains to be seen if NASCAR will introduce measures to prevent drivers from fighting each other.
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