4 Burning Questions: What Actions Should NASCAR Take After Another Messy Martinsville?

Could NASCAR benefit from penalizing drivers for causing crashes?

I hate leaving it to officials to have to make judgement calls, and even more so I dislike the idea of having to widen the rulebook because of the potential for a grey area.

But somebody has to take control of these races. Especially with this win-and-you’re-in format.

More often than not, Truck and Xfinity races, sometimes even Cup races, have current and former drivers and personalities reacting like this:

Absolute garbage

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) March 29, 2025

This racetrack is historic in the grand scheme of all things NASCAR and deserves better.

— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) March 29, 2025

Feels like the same tweet year after year.

Embarrassing.

— Freddie Kraft (@FreddieKraft) March 30, 2025

It’s embarrassing for the drivers, the track, the sponsors, the series and the sport overall. Unfortunately, these debacles seem to happen quite frequently at Martinsville. 

While Bristol and Richmond are listed among the short track ranks, Martinsville is the only track on the schedule that truly races like a short track. The low banking, tight turns and slow corner speeds with a single preferred groove give drivers the opportunity to use the bumper.

Recently, cautions in the final stage of the race bunch the cars back up. On restarts, drivers see an easy opportunity to make up ground by making three-wide moves and bumping other cars out of the way. With limited laps left, the drivers feel like they can steal a few positions with limited consequences. 

To their point, the drivers are not facing consequences for their actions, while the fans and the sport are. 

The days of drivers self-policing are long gone. Turning on-track dustups into post-race fights earns drivers and teams fines and penalties. Maybe there’s a way to keep things from getting too out of hand while the race is still going on.

Plenty of other forms of motorsports have penalties for avoidable contact. While I get the belief that ‘this isn’t other motorsports, this is NASCAR,’ the top tier of stock car racing has become too wild, too unpredictable, and these types of races are not only embarrassing, they are becoming dangerous.

It’s a safety issue.

Just like NASCAR has started penalizing drivers for intentionally right-hooking another car into the wall, they can look at penalizing drivers for making a low-probability move in which they know will likely result in a yellow. 

As with any rule, there is some grey area, especially at a place like Martinsville where a crash could come from one driver shoving multiple other cars into the corner. So let’s go over some examples.

First, Corey Day slid sideways into Harrison Burton. While it looked like Day had a slight bit of contact from behind, he also mentioned wheel hop as a culprit over the radio. Sure, Day had some contact, but taking all things into account there are no clear contact penalties here.

The next one is a different story. While drivers were all over the place trying to get through this corner, it looks pretty obvious that Sam Mayer got to the back bumper of Christian Eckes and just did not lift.

“He’s not going to change anything,” Eckes told the CW in his interview, and he’s right. Nothing will change for any of these drivers if there are no immediate, in-race consequences for their actions.

You can’t — and shouldn’t — penalize drivers for using the bumper. It also sort of sucks that the line between a penalty and no penalty could depend on the drivers’ ability to handle certain kinds of contact.

At the same time, drivers delivering the contact should know that they are responsible, more or less, for taking care of the driver they are trying to move or pass.

Should NASCAR look at further penalties for Sammy Smith? 

Everything started on the second to last restart when Sammy Smith chose to line up behind Taylor Gray. In these lower series, it becomes painfully obvious what the second-place car has up their sleeve.

It’s a cheap way to try win the race. Smith has done nothing to show he had enough pace to pass the leader cleanly. In fact, Gray consistently gapped Smith on every prior restart.

What does Smith do? He lines up behind Gray and lays on the back bumper of the No. 54, nearly spinning Gray.

It’s too predictable. Sammy Smith was always going to choose behind Taylor Gray and ship him. Bet I can tell you what happens next:

Gray will line up behind Smith and move him into turn 1 on the restart#NASCARXfinity

— Caleb Barnes (@calebbarnes_) March 29, 2025

That did happen. But I wasn’t able to predict the last lap, when Smith gave up on trying to make the corner and instead set his intentions on making sure Gray wouldn’t win the race.

A replay of the #NASCAROvertime finish at @MartinsvilleSwy. pic.twitter.com/fGJecynkQT

— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) March 29, 2025

After the race, Smith said in an interview, “roles reversed, he would have done the exact same thing.” Smith must have forgotten that Gray did move the No. 8 cleanly on the restart after Smith had already started the whole thing just a few laps before. 

This is a totally different conversation if Smith was on the back bumper of Gray going into the final corners and moved him that way. That’s not what happened, though. Gray had a car length and a half lead going into the last turn, which was far too big of a gap for Smith to close naturally.

Instead, Smith carried enough speed into the final turns that he cleared Justin Allgaier on his inside and crushed the front of his car to run Gray over.

Again, this is a safety issue. Last-lap contact is one thing, but driving too fast into a corner to purposefully wreck a competitor is dangerous, and it leads to more drivers piling in, causing yet another terrible crash at the finish on the frontstretch. 

Races have to stop ending like that, and Smith deserves a more severe penalty to dissuade further driving. No penalty would not only be a disservice, it would leave Gray feeling like he has to even the score on his own terms. 

In-race penalties like the previous topic discussed should help dissuade drivers from making moves like that in the race, and it may even keep NASCAR from having to go back and issue further midweek penalties. 

Until then, NASCAR should look at these actions, and in this case, consider giving Smith extra discipline.

Now’s the time for the competition execs that are in the @nascar tower each week to set an example. @sammysmithSS willfully admitted that the carnage he caused on track was his plan. 🍿

— Chris Lambert (@3widemiddle) March 30, 2025

Does the Xfinity Series need a break from Martinsville?

The 100^th Xfinity Series victory for Richard Childress Racing is a huge accomplishment, but the triumph is overshadowed by that rough finish.

In fact, the entire race stage was rough, running almost as many caution laps as green flag laps.

This is now the most laps ever run under caution in Martinsville Xfinity Series history (102)#NASCAR #Marines250

— Dalton Hopkins (@PitLaneCPT) March 29, 2025

Before 2020, the Martinsville race weekend traditionally consisted of a Truck Series race Saturday afternoon preceding the Cup Series race on Sunday. While the lack of lights made a tripleheader involving all three series, there might have been another reason the Xfinity Series stopped going to Martinsville. 

The Xfinity track record at Martinsville is 19 cautions in 2006. After that race, they didn't come back for 14 years.

— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) March 29, 2025

Since the Xfinity Series returned to Martinsville in 2020, six of the 10 races have had overtime restarts at the finish, many of them ending in a wad of crashed cars as well. The Xfinity Series has also averaged 13 cautions in each race since the return. That is way too many cautions for a race that only has 250 laps.

The green-flag racing with the Xfinity cars at Martinsville has been the best of the three at the track in recent years. But the wild finishes have overshadowed that, and it might be time to give the Xfinity Series a break from the Paperclip.

In fact, I think the Truck Series action might benefit from returning to running its race on Saturday. Something about the trucks in the daytime seemed to allow for more tire wear and rubber going down, leading to better racing. 

The Xfinity Series still has to run its penultimate race there later this fall, but as NASCAR is making the schedule later this season, it should consider giving the series a break from Martinsville Speedway.

Who is Corey Heim’s biggest threat?

So far in 2025, Corey Heim has two wins, which is a decent number in the first five races. However, Heim very well could be a four-time winner in the first five events this year.

The No. 11 truck has been dominant in nearly all aspects. Heim’s biggest threat at this point is himself. Well, sort of. It would be more appropriate to say Heim’s biggest threat is his equipment, his team or his luck. 

After dominating Homestead, Heim’s engine literally flickered like a light bulb, randomly shutting off and then powering back on. That allowed Kyle Larson to take away that win in the final laps.

Heim again dominated Friday night at Martinsville, but contact with Kaden Honeycutt on a restart flattened his tire and took the No. 11 out of contention yet again.

We'll restart with less than 30 to go after this incident involving the No. 11. pic.twitter.com/bAxo6XC6OA

— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) March 29, 2025

Late in 2024, Ty Majeski and Layne Riggs showed the ability to beat Heim, and there are many other Truck Series regulars that have competed near the front in the last three races.

However, Heim is in a completely different zip code right now. If he can turn his luck around, Heim could have a historic season.