NASCAR announced a slew of penalties on Tuesday, April 1, spanning all three of NASCAR’s main touring series.
The heftiest penalty was toward JR Motorsports driver Sammy Smith, who has been docked 50 points in the NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers standings and fined $25,000, following the end of Saturday’s (March 29) Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway.
The penalty stems from a last-lap incident where Smith, who was running second, dove into the bumper of Joe Gibbs Racing driver Taylor Gray‘s No. 54 car, initiating a multi-car crash on the frontstretch of the racetrack. Smith finished the race 10th, and Gray dropped back to 29th.
Following the penalty, Smith will drop from sixth to 13th in the Xfinity standings, which places him just outside of a playoff spot as it currently stands.
Gray and Jordan Anderson Racing driver Jeb Burton were also fined $5,000 for behavioral penalties for conduct in the infield care center. Burton finished 11th Saturday after also being caught up in the last-lap crash.
On the NASCAR Cup Series side, NASCAR suspended two pit crew members of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing car driven by Shane van Gisbergen. The penalty stems from an incident where the No. 88 lost a wheel after leaving the pits on Sunday. The pit crew members are suspended for two races, starting with the next Cup Series event at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, April 6.
NASCAR also handed down penalties to the No. 00 Haas Factory Team car driven by Sheldon Creed in the Xfinity Series and the No. 71 Spire Motorsports truck driven by Rajah Caruth in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series due to each team having a loose lug nut. The No. 00 Xfinity team was fined $5,000, and No. 71’s truck team was fined $2,500.
Logan Kendall joined the Frontstretch team in 2025 as the Tuesday news writer and eventually branched out into assisting with Frontstretch's social media and video team operations as well. Outside of motorsports, he has an interest in history, meteorology, and government.
My God ppl it’s racing. These things happen. Would you pppl be crying for Childress to fire Dale Sr back in the day? Y’all are soft.
Jr. should fire the kid. When Jr. is the heir to the original rattle his cage.
What is the difference between Sr. Taking out Terry Labonte at Bristol 1999 and Sammy Smith at Martinsville? Because Sammy came from 5 car lengths back to take out the leader. My commonsense tells me both instances the leader got taken out. One racer gets fined and the fans howl the other fans cheer and the legend grows.
It would be great if E Jr would fire or sit Sammy Smith. He could surely explain to the sponsors how bad this make them all look.And that destroying equipment is not an acceptable option. There are plenty of deserving drivers looking for an opportunity. Sammy Smith is replaceable!
The message needs to be sent all those young drivers that you actually have to be able to “race” a car to particpate at this level.
Moth penalty not enough. If Junior had class he’d park the kid.
Class was a poor choice of words. If Junior respected the sport he would fire the kid. But he needs the Pilot $$
Hell you would have to fire a driver each race if this was the case. Move along Karen.