Animosity Builds Between Smith and Gray After Skirmish in Martinsville

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

Short track, shorter tempers.

The finish of Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway devolved into chaos once again, this time when Sammy Smith and Taylor Gray found themselves in a skirmish on the last lap of overtime.

With Gray in the lead and Smith running second heading into Turn 3 and the win on the line, Smith charged his No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet down into the corner, slamming into the rear end of Gray’s No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with enough force to buckle the hood on his car.

The contact was enough to move Gray up the track for Smith to take the lead temporarily, while Gray wound up spinning out and free-falling down the running order. Meanwhile, Smith had lost all momentum, causing his JRM teammate Justin Allgaier to collide with him, setting off a chaotic crash coming off Turn 4, in which Smith was collected.

In the mayhem, Austin Hill snuck by to take the lead and the win to score the 100^th Xfinity Series win for Richard Childress Racing.

Gray would finish the race in 29^th after leading 87 laps on the day, while Smith would be credited with a 10^th place finish. For the second Martinsville race in a row, Gray found himself crashed out with the finish in sight after having a similar incident in the Truck Series race last fall.

A replay of the #NASCAROvertime finish at @MartinsvilleSwy. pic.twitter.com/fGJecynkQT

— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) March 29, 2025

“It sucks,” said Gray. “I feel like we had the best car all day. I can’t thank everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing enough. We brought a really fast Operation 300 Toyota GR Supra. Just unfortunate – it’s the same story I’ve lived here for the past two Martinsville race in a row. It sucks, but it is what it is. Long year.”

Smith took ownership of the incident being a step too far, but stopped short of apologizing for his actions that kicked off the last lap crash.

“Absolutely, it was egregious,” said Smith. “I’m not proud of that. Roles reversed, he would have done the same thing. He’s got no respect for me. I didn’t move him those first few restarts. He was flipping me off under the red flag, swerving at me. It’s definitely uncalled for. I’m not proud of it, but he would have done the exact same thing, and that’s what I told him.

“We’ll see what happens after that. I felt like we had a really good day today…everybody brought a really fast race car. It’s unfortunate. If you’re not the one doing it, someone’s going to do it to you. Everyone’s going to dog on me. I’m not proud of that, but at the end of the day, it’s just what you’ve got to do. We’ll move on to Darlington.”

The two did have some words after getting checked out in the Infield Care Center, showing there is no love lost between these two drivers and likely to be more conflicts between them going forward.

“We have a little bit of a past and I know he has no respect for me. Flipping me off under the red flag, that was the line for me. Maybe he’ll find some more respect. I’m sure we’ll go at it a couple of more times, but I’m not afraid to,” Smith said.

“From his end, I’m sure not,” he added of whether the feud would be over here or continue past Martinsville. “I’m not going to let him have the last bite, so we’ll see.”

.@Taylor_Gray and @sammysmithSS have some words after the race at Martinsville. pic.twitter.com/cLXDoFdZPk

— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) March 30, 2025