NASCAR Announces Hefty Points Penalty, Fine on Sammy Smith

Hill would eventually win the race with Smith finishing 10th and Gray dropping to 29th according to the official race results.

“We want to see really hard racing and door-to-door racing, and contact is certainly a part of the sport and part of the sport at Martinsville Speedway,” said Eric Peterson, Xfinity Series Managing Director, on NASCAR.com. “We felt like after looking at all the facts, all the video, the team audio, SMT data and all the tools, we have to work with and review an incident like that. Unfortunately, what Sammy did was over the line and something that we feel like we had to react to. We would prefer to leave it in the driver’s hands but in this case, it wasn’t really a racing move and we reacted to it as such.”

Smith falls from sixth in the standings down to 13th, now 128 points behind championship leader Allgaier and coincidentally one point behind Gray.

Additionally, Gray and driver Jeb Burton were also fined $5,000 but did not receive any points penalty with noted violations of “Infield Care Center conduct” according to the report.

“Taylor and Jeb were in the care center post-race and there was some behavior that we felt stepped over the line as far as interrupting a medical situation,” Mike Forde claimed on NASCAR.com, NASCAR’s Managing Director of Racing Communications. “The care center is almost an on-site hospital, so the drivers and any competitor that enters that area, there should be a sense of decorum there.”

A recent similar incident occurred just last year in the Cup Series when Austin Dillon dove into the final turn, taking out Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to win at Richmond Raceway. Dillon was docked 25 points and not fined, but the win was encumbered, stripping his team from playoff eligibility.

Per Bob Pockrass from Fox Sports, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and JR Motorsports plan to not appeal the penalty to Smith.

Other penalties included suspensions in the Cup Series for Trackhouse Racing crew members Aslan Pugh and Jonpatrik Kealey from the next two NASCAR Cup Series when Shane Van Gisbergen lost a wheel during the race.

One Xfinity Series team and one Craftsman Truck Series team were both fined for a loose lug nut during post-race inspections: Sheldon Creed in Xfinity and Rajah Caruth in the Truck Series.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Darlington Raceway for its traditional throwback weekend for the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200. Coverage on The CW begins at 3:30 p.m. ET.