Mark Martin calls for Xfinity Series drivers to self-police, ‘have more respect’ after Martinsville

Mark Martin is one of many NASCAR veterans who took issue with the lack of respect shown between drivers in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Martinsville. The Hall of Famer still commands a lot of respect in the garage for the way he raced his competitors.

Martin wants to see more accountability in Xfinity but doesn’t necessarily want to see NASCAR be the ones to deliver the message. Instead, Martin is calling for drivers and perhaps team owners to self-police.

“I just wish NASCAR wouldn’t have to [step in]. They may have to, but it’s a no-win situation for NASCAR. They’re going to make some people mad. They’re going to get it wrong sometimes,” Martin said Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “It’s just one more thing that they have to police, and I would much rather see the drivers be able to police it and possibly thinking about owners as well. The climate and the etiquette of racing today is much different than it used to be and that’s fine.

“But Saturday’s race was an embarrassment to our sport. We can’t have that, and we should all — as an industry — be able to come together and say, ‘Hey, that was a complete crap show, and we don’t want to see that anymore. That’s not good for our sport.’ Collectively, I hope we can come together and try to clean that up. Good hard racing, a bump and run once in a while is good. But if you’ve got a bump and run going every single lap, it’s not good.”

Contact was plentiful between drivers in Saturday’s race. In total, there were 102 caution laps. Only 11 Xfinity races have had more than 100 caution laps, according to Seth Eggert of Motorsports Reference. But perhaps nothing was more egregious than Sammy Smith‘s conduct on the final lap of the race.

Smith slammed into race-leader Taylor Gray on the final corner, taking them both out of contention and allowing Austin Hill to drive by to take the checkered flag. Smith slid across the start/finish line 10th, while Gray finished 29th. The two drivers exchanged words after the race and had to be separated before things turned physical. 

Mark Martin calls out Xfinity Series drivers for lack of respect at Martinsville

Several NASCAR veterans such as Denny Hamlin expressed their frustration with the lack of respect shown in Xfinity. FOX Sports commentator Mike Joy went as far as to call the race a “dumpster fire” during Sunday’s Cup Series broadcast.

But what can be done is the big question. Some have floated the idea of taking points away or parking drivers. That would certainly send a message, yes. Simply put, Martin wants to see more respect on the racetrack.

“I did have some points taken from me a couple times. That has its amount of deterrent and everyone’s different,” Martin said. “For me, just being frowned upon by my peers would crush me. I mean, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep after something like that happened. One of my heroes, Jack Roush, sat Ricky Stenhouse out and made him watch his car race a few weeks. … Somehow, we need the drivers to have more respect for one another.

“We come up in an age where the drivers don’t realize how much work and money goes in each one of these racecars. You’re gonna tear cars up but tearing them up for no reason is totally unacceptable. I think there was way too much running over and wrecking one another. What I saw was in-car cameras showing a wreck in front of a guy and he still didn’t let off. He stayed in the gas. I know that’s what you have to do nowadays but I hate that. Back in my day, when you saw a wreck starting to happen in front of you, you would back off. We didn’t see a whole lot of that on Saturday.”