NASCAR penalizes Sammy Smith, Taylor Gray, Jeb Burton after Martinsville Xfinity Series race

NASCAR has penalized Sammy Smith for a wreck of Taylor Gray that sent the overtime of the Xfinity Series race on Saturday into complete chaos. The organization handed down the ruling on Tuesday.

Smith has been fined $25,000 and docked 50 points, according to Dustin Long of NBC Sports. That will impact the Xfinity Series standings.

The driver who got aggressive going into Turn 3 will drop from sixth in the points standings to 13th. That’s a sizeable penalty for the infraction.

In additional fallout from the chaos in the Xfinity Series, Gray and Jeb Burton were also fined $5,000 for going into the infield care center to confront other drivers after the race. Naturally, given the way things unfolded, tensions were high.

Many have come down hard on the behavior behind the wheel late in the race on Saturday. There were multiple points of contact, much of it egregious, in the closing stages of the race. A major part of the race was completed under caution as a result.

Cup Series driver Christopher Bell opened up on the sequence following his own race over the weekend. He was blunt.

“I mean yesterday was absolutely infuriating. My blood was boiling inside the motorhome watching it,” Bell told journalist Claire B. Lang. “It was a disgrace for our sport. That should not be tolerated. Not just the last lap, but the whole thing. We’ve got to hold ourselves to better standards than that. That was embarrassing.”

So what happened exactly? Well, the most egregious contact came in overtime of the Xfinity Series race.

Sammy Smith cleared out Taylor Gray from behind going into Turn 3, causing Gray to spin. That also ended up ruining Smith’s chance to win, as he got caught up in the wash.

Instead, Austin Hill slipped by for the win. But the carnage that unfolded behind the start/finish line was considerable.

“I don’t know. Something has to be done,” Bell said. “I think I said on the podium at COTA and said hopefully this is a step in the right direction, and the Cup races have been good. They’ve been really good and fair and clean. But yeah, yesterday was absolutely embarrassing. Something needs to be done. I don’t know where it starts probably in NASCAR. Yeah, that was bad.”