Was the 50-point penalty against Sammy Smith too much, not enough or just right for his actions at the Martinsville Speedway NASCAR Xfinity Series race?
Christopher Hansen: The loss of 50 points and a fine of $25,000 for Sammy Smith didn’t make up for the fact that he crashed race leader Taylor Gray coming to the checkered flag. NASCAR needs to put its foot down to ensure we don’t have another chaotic last lap like at Martinsville. Nothing deters a driver from taking matters into their own hands like when a suspension could be handed down. As much as I hate to see drivers be suspended, disciplinary action has to be taken to avoid similar incidents.
Wyatt Watson: Smith’s 50-point penalty did plenty of justice for what happened. Typically, I would consider a suspension for a driver whose actions go to the measure that Smith took. However, with the new rule barring regular-season playoff points from counting due to missing a race because of a suspension, the 50-point penalty serves a just cause for the season as a whole from NASCAR’s perspective. However, if JR Motorsports weren’t in the position of having to rely on Smith’s Pilot Flying J funds for the No. 8 Chevrolet, I would absolutely suspend him myself if I were in the shoes of Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Amy Henderson: I’m not sure what the answer is. Part of the problem is NASCAR’s doing with the win-and-in playoff formula, but this can’t be entirely a NASCAR fix. While it would be a slightly smaller point penalty, NASCAR should absolutely DQ drivers who just banzai the leader with no attempt at a clean pass. No points, no prize money for the team. But the owners and sponsors also have to step up to the plate here. If they don’t want their driver dumped like Gray was, they need to have the courage to sit that driver for a week or two. If owners don’t own up, NASCAR needs to make playoff waivers available only for illness/injury/family emergency and the like, count the DQ as a race missed and open a playoff spot for another driver.
Landon Quesinberry: Not enough, plain and simple. In the playoff era, a win completely erases the impact of the penalty. If Smith wins a race a few weeks from now, no one is even going to care about the penalty. Then he doesn’t learn anything from the penalty because it had no effect on him whatsoever. Just not seeing how you could justify this being enough.
Denny Hamlin has set a goal of getting 60 career NASCAR Cup Series wins. Does he reach that mark before he retires?
Jake Altmayer: While I was initially concerned about Denny Hamlin being split from his long-time crew chief Chris Gabehart after the 2024 season, I still have no doubt that he will reach 60 wins before he hangs up his helmet. Hamlin could realistically have at least three wins already this season, as he was in position to win at both Daytona International Speedway and Phoenix Raceway in the closing laps before finally breaking through at Martinsville last weekend. Many drivers may be considered past their primes by the time they reach their mid-40s, but Hamlin is still performing at the top of his game and has at least another few years left in the tank before he finally calls it a career. Based on Hamlin’s performance these past few years and the number of tracks where he can contend, I say he hits 60 wins by the end of the 2026 season.
Quesinberry: That really depends on when Hamlin hangs it up. If he calls it after this year, he won’t reach that mark. If he has two or three more years in him, he easily reaches that milestone.
Henderson: It depends on a couple of factors, mainly how long Hamlin wants to stay in the car. If Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota hit a hot streak, he could match that number by the end of next year. He could even do it in 2025 if the chips fall right. He’d need a six-win season, and he has accomplished that three times in his career, though not since 2020. But he won three in both 2023 and 2024, so end of next season is easily attainable. JGR doesn’t generally give contract details, but I can’t imagine that even if his contract ended after this year, JGR wouldn’t extend him another year or two. As funny as it sounds, catching former teammate Kyle Busch at 63 is a slightly longer shot — doable, but time is running out. What Hamlin should NOT do is hang on to try to hit a number and never get there. That’s not how any driver wants to be remembered.
Hansen: Hamlin will reach 60 Cup wins before he hangs up the helmet for good. He’s won multiple races in every season going back to 2021, and despite not winning in the second half of the ‘24 season, he still visited victory lane three times. If the No. 11 team can replicate its dominance from Martinsville, not only will Hamlin be on the fast track to 60 wins, it could happen sooner than we think.
Team Penske’s mechanical issues continued at Martinsville. Is this becoming a cause for concern for its hopes of a fourth-straight Cup championship?
Henderson: It’s way too early for the team that has won the last three titles to hit the panic button. It’s not running terribly, gremlins aside; in fact, as a whole entity, it looks good. Austin Cindric and de facto Wood Brothers Racing teammate Josh Berry have run better than their finishes most weeks. Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney have had terrible luck, as Blaney could easily have a win or two. They need to just do what they do and the finishes will come. The worst thing a team in a slump can do is panic, because then it starts racing to not lose, which is not the same as racing to win. Desperation rarely breeds results. The Penske ship is bobbing on a couple of waves, but she’s hardly taking on water. No need to start bailing yet.
Watson: Penske as well as affiliate Wood Brothers should absolutely be concerned with the performance of their Ford Mustangs. In fact, they should be on red alert. The same string of engine and mechanical failures haunted JGR in the leadup to the playoffs last season. The fact that Penske has had these issues three weeks in a row officially begins a worrying trend for the team that it has to push through. Three strikes, you’re out!
Altmayer: While experiencing multiple mechanical failures in a row is certainly not ideal for any race team, it’s just too early in the season to push the panic button for Penske just yet. In the Next Gen era, Penske has historically struggled a bit during the opening portion of the season before showing more speed and consistency during the summer months and into the playoffs, so the team has plenty of time to sort out these mechanical gremlins. That said, it’s still something that we should be paying attention to over the coming weeks and months of the season, especially if the Penske drivers all remain winless over the course of that time.
Quesinberry: No. Penske has already shown the last few years that you do not need to be the best team through the entirety of the season to hold up the trophy at Phoenix in November. While mechanical gremlins are always a concern in general, this shouldn’t make the team panic, unless it doesn’t get it figured out come playoff time.
Which throwback paint scheme for this weekend’s races at Darlington Raceway is your favorite?
Hansen: Throwback Weekend is one of my favorite parts of the NASCAR season, especially seeing a majority of the teams taking part in the festivities. There are so many great throwbacks this season, but my favorite has to be Kyle Larson’s throwback to the paint scheme Terry Labonte drove to his final Cup win in the 2003 Southern 500 at Darlington.
Watson: Alpha Prime Racing has put together yet another banger of a throwback scheme in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. With its rebranded No. 4 Chevrolet driven by Parker Retzlaff, it used the newly acquired number to good use, throwing back to ’90s Cup driver Ernie Irvan in the yellow Kodak colors. APR has been one of the best teams when it comes to producing throwback paint schemes, producing an almost equally impressive throwback on Brennan Poole’s No. 44. Poole’s team recreated Jeff Gordon’s 2001 Looney Tunes scheme, notching another highly successive Hendrick Motorsports throwback.
Altmayer: Berry’s Jim Clark throwback. It’s not only a great looking scheme, but the history behind it is really neat as well, as Clark won the 1965 Indianapolis 500 with help from the Wood Brothers themselves, who serviced his car in the pits. I always appreciate when teams think outside the box with their throwbacks, so this one in particular really stands.
Wyatt Watson has followed motorsports closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretch as a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt is one of Frontstretch's primary IndyCar correspondents, providing exclusive video content on site. He hosts Frontstretch's Through the Gears podcast and occasionally The Pit Straight.You can find Wyatt's written work in columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monsteras well as exclusive IndyCar features. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media team, posting unique and engaging content for Frontstretch.
Wyatt Watson can be found on X @WyattWRacing
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.
Jake Altmayer joined the Frontstretch team in 2025, assisting as a news writer and contributing to other weekly columns and articles, such as Friday Faceoff and Xfinity Breakdown. A 2024 graduate of DePaul University, Altmayer has closely followed NASCAR's national series (Cup, Xfinity and Trucks) for nearly a decade and has attended more than a dozen races over the course of that time. In his free time, he enjoys cycling, spending time with his loved ones, and listening to his favorite band, the Beach Boys.