Tommy Joe Martins was not happy with how that final restart went in the Dude Wipes 250 Xfinity Series race at Martinsville. The NASCAR overtime turned into a bit of a mess at the end of the night.
Martins, President of Alpha Prime Racing, took to Twitter/X to air his grievances. Ryan Ellis was running well and trying to come up with a top-15 finish. For that No. 43 team that would be a great night at Martinsville.
Instead, they went home P26 and without many points. Tommy Joe Martins called it “pathetic.”
“Our series is absolutely pathetic at the end of these races. Zero respect to anybody or the effort it takes to build these cars. Just a bunch of assholes mad they’re running 15th instead of 5th. Really proud of
[Ryan Ellis] & the whole 43 crew. Deserved so much better.”
Martinsville tends to get wild. However, there were drivers going in over their heads on that final restart. Moves were being made that shouldn’t have been made. At times, that is the nature of the Xfinity Series.
For Tommy Joe Martins, it is a wrecked race car that shouldn’t have been wrecked. That is money and time for a small team that can’t afford to expend too much of either. Ellis has a season-best finish of P11 from Daytona. His season since then has not been the best.
While Ellis has qualified well, including a P4 start at COTA, he hasn’t finished his races well. Outside of that Daytona race, his best finish is P21.
Tommy Joe Martins makes a good point about the restart. I won’t say it was “pathetic” but there are drivers that just didn’t handle it well. Riley Herbst ended up wrecked due to some tough racing. Sheldon Creed took the field three wide multiple times on the final restart.
Aric Almirola showed how it should be done. He was able to use his car to be aggressive on the track, but he didn’t dump anyone. He never got too deep and trashed another car. A lesson that many of the drivers in the field could stand to learn.
A lot of cars got tore up tonight. That didn’t have to happen. Drivers have to be better on the restarts, especially in this series. Tommy Joe Martins and his team will try again next week.
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