Insider suggests NASCAR 'black flag' drivers after Martinsville Xfinity Series debacle

A NASCAR insider suggested that the governing body needs to issue the black flag to drivers after watching the Xfinity Series race at Martinsville. On "The Teardown" podcast, Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic shared his thoughts on the race, which featured reckless driving from multiple competitors.

“It crossed the line. Chaos is fine, but this was far exceeding that line,” Bianchi said. “This was, as Christopher Bell said, embarrassing; this was a disgrace. It was bad. I’m all for hard racing, I like short-track racing. Short-track racing is putting a fender to someone sometimes and moving them out of the way, and that’s OK.

“But this was unacceptable to this level. It’s not even just how the last few laps ended, it was even before that. I would have said the same thing with 20 (laps) to go. This has to be changed. I don’t know the solution. Is the idea that NASCAR needs to just come down and start black flagging people? Maybe. I would have thought that people would have gotten the message that NASCAR wasn’t okay with this after Austin Dillon had his win taken away last fall at Richmond, and that if you are over the top with your aggressiveness, you’re going to be penalized. That doesn’t seem to have registered at all, which is surprising.”

What is NASCAR’s black flag?

The black flag in NASCAR is typically “directed toward a particular driver who NASCAR officials or scorers have determined has committed an on-track offense — or cannot maintain a consistent and competitive speed to continue racing — and must leave the racing surface and return to the pit area immediately.” It’s also called a consultation flag since the driver and his team will meet with a NASCAR official in the pits to determine what the infraction was and if there will be a penalty.

Sammy Smith took a lot of heat after the Martinsville Xfinity Series race for ramming his No. 8 car into the rear of Taylor Gray’s No. 54 Toyota during overtime. That led to Austin Hill winning the race and denying Gray his first Xfinity Series race win. When the race ended, Smith and Gray exchanged words at the Care Center.

“So like the whole interaction in Turn 1, where initially he moved me up the race track and he got the lead from me, and then I did the same thing to him. Think that’s fair, right?” Gray said, per NASCAR.com. “We know we’re coming down to the end of the race. I was a little upset when he first hit me, just because I felt like I haven’t put a scratch on him all year. He could have raced me a little bit better. But then again, it’s Martinsville.”