Xfinity Breakdown: Bad Tempers Abound; DVP Needs Fixed

Martinsville Speedway has seen a lot of tempers flaring among drivers, especially in the fall playoff races. The time of day doesn’t seem to matter. Bumping, beating and banging’s been consistent in both night and day races.

Saturday’s (Nov. 2) NASCAR Xfinity Series’ National Debt Relief 250 was no different, with drivers upset from the beginning through the end of the race.

You know who wasn’t upset? Aric Almirola, who won both stages and swept Martinsville. The former Cup regular seemed to once again be the class of the field, though there weren’t many green flag runs to determine who had the best car.

Almirola held off late charges from Sammy Smith and Cole Custer to claim his third Xfinity Series win of the season.

Sammy Smith was second, Chandler Smith took third, Custer was fourth and Justin Allgaier rounded out the top five.

Custer and Allgaier joined AJ Allmendinger and Austin Hill in the Championship 4 on points. They’ll compete for a title next weekend at Phoenix Raceway.

Winners

Almirola led a few more laps than he did in the spring and survived the chaotic nature of the ‘Paperclip.’ He wasn’t afraid to use the bumper when needed and threaded through the field during the short green-flag periods.

It’s been quite a resurgence for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who retired from full-time competition last season. It’s not that Almirola didn’t win some races in the NASCAR Cup Series, he just wasn’t as consistent. This year, his average finish across 13 races is 9.7, with five results outside the top 10.

The victory also placed the JGR No. 20 in the owner’s Championship 4, which is important for the team. That squad has accumulated nine wins among four different drivers — certainly one of the best All-Star cars I’ve seen. It reminds me of Kyle Busch Motorsports’ All-Star entry that fielded multiple drivers (when it was still running).

Custer and Allgaier are both in this category mainly due to the fact that they’re racing for a title next week. Both did what they needed to do, though Custer appeared a bit more aggressive than the No. 7 car.

The bigger story was how the defending champion raced Chandler Smith. He basically shoved him out of the way on a late restart. Custer didn’t outright wreck Chandler, but it was enough for the driver of the No. 81 to be upset after the race.

Allgaier, meanwhile, spent most of the day quietly running in the top 10. He didn’t have a race-winning car, but defended well on the .526-mile track.

Some drivers worthy of shout outs are Anthony Alfredo, Parker Kligerman and Myatt Snider. Alfredo began the race on the front row, but wasn’t able to stay near the front in the early parts of the race. But he did climb back into the top 10 by the end, earning a seventh-place finish.

Kligerman was eighth after he qualified a distant 18th. He had to drop to the rear for a brake issue that was repaired before starting the event.

Snider joined DGM Racing for this race in the No. 91 and endured had a rough first stage. He got spun off the nose of Ryan Sieg while racing around 18th. But after a lot of beatin’ and bangin’ all around him, Snider bounced back to earn a 10th place. It’s a testament to his talent (and Martinsville’s traditional short track attrition) that Snider was able to get a top 10 for an underdog team.

Losers

Some of the obvious losers are Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith, Sam Mayer and Jesse Love, as all four are eliminated from the playoffs. For Sammy, I feel that this was his best performance since Darlington Raceway. Yes, he won at Talladega Superspeedway, but he only led five laps then.

This second-place run showed the grit that Sammy Smith has when he’s under pressure.

Love’s 12th-place result wasn’t what he needed (or wanted), but for a rookie in the series to be even in the Round of 8 in the playoffs is an accomplishment to be proud of.

Mayer was doing his best to stay in contention. But after a restart around lap 227, the field stacked up and he ran into the back of the car in front of him. The damage from the contact was too severe, knocking Mayer out of the race and playoffs with a 30th-place finish.

One driver who earned a top 10, but I feel still deserves to be in this section, is Sheldon Creed – just based on his actions on the racetrack. Creed suffered a speeding penalty around lap 177, which put him at the tail end of the field. I guess that irritated Creed, who seemed to take it out on other drivers.

Around lap 197, Creed dove in underneath Blaine Perkins and Josh Williams battling for 15th and made contact, sending both drivers out of the way. Williams showed his displeasure with Creed during the subsequent caution.

That wasn’t the end. About 20 laps later, Creed’s No. 18 got into Brandon Jones, sending him spinning and rear-ending the wall.

This kind of racing needed to be reined in a bit. I’m all for bump-and-run, short track action. But not like that.

Playoff Pit

Custer will look to defend his title against Hill, Allmendinger and Allgaier next week. It should be an interesting bout, with the veteran Allgaier looking forward to racing at Phoenix Raceway again with a shot at his first Xfinity Series title.

Paint Scheme of the Week

It may be because it’s about lunchtime where I live, but I enjoyed seeing Shane van Gisbergen‘s No. 97 Wendy’s car. The colors aren’t exactly the best, but seeing french fries and Frostys all over the car makes me hungry for Wendy’s.

SVG is dipping his fries in his frosty this weekend at Martinsville Speedway with Wendy's! 😋

Posted by Kaulig Racing on Tuesday, October 29, 2024

It also has “honk if you want a Frosty” on the rear bumper. I don’t think these cars have horns. But if they did, van Gisbergen would likely hear a lot of honks.

Fuel for Thought

Outside of all the drama, tempers and short-track bumping, there was an issue that happened early on in the race. In stage one, Leland Honeyman got spun and hit the wall with about 12 laps left in the stage. He went down pit road for repairs. On the next restart, with about seven laps to go in the stage, the caution again waved for Parker Retzlaff getting turned hard into the wall.

Here’s where things get interesting.

NASCAR decided to allow a one-lap shootout to close out the stage, and the yellow flag again waved for the stage end. During this whole sequence, Honeyman was unable to make a lap at minimum speed during the green flag periods (which were notably short). As a result, he was declared out of the race.

How is this even fair?

Young’s Motorsports posted on X about the issue: “due to the caution coming out again before LHJ completed a lap after getting sent in to Turn 2, we are out – DVP (thumb down emoji).”

Frankly, I agree with them. They should have been allowed to run at least a few laps under green to make minimum speed. Martinsville is a short track where cars race close together and many run slower in the corners. They can’t get up to full speed with one green-flag lap.

“So much for the DVP rule,” Honeyman posted on X. The car in the photo he shared with the post appeared to be in good condition, at least in the front.

Now, it is rather unclear what exactly took Honeyman out, as just prior to the team’s post about Honeyman being out of the race, a different post said that Honeyman was out of the car on pit road “after reporting smoke in the cockpit.”

Either way, my point still stands. Something needs to be done about the Damaged Vehicle Policy to allow drivers with cars that don’t have much damage to continue racing.

Where to Next

Four drivers will race for the Xfinity Series championship at Phoenix Raceway next Saturday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. ET on The CW.