Tempers Flare, Fists Fly at NASCAR Martinsville

Short track racing and angry drivers go hand-in-hand and with a Championship Four berth on the line tempers always flare.

After Saturday’s National Debt Relief 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race, it was Chandler Smith who took a swing at Cole Custer. A day earlier, it was Taylor Gray who went after winner Christian Eckes after the Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.

Smith, who doesn’t have a ride for 2025, and Gray both had to win to get a berth in their respective series Championship Four. Both fell short as Smith finished third, and Gray placed fourth. Gray, with NASCAR security beside him, confronted Eckes in victory lane Friday night. Then on Saturday, Smith took a swing at Custer on pit road.

“I think at the end of the day he put us in the wall a few times this year,” Custer said about Smith. “He kept us from winning a race, I feel like, at Kansas. He used the bumper on me, so I used the bumper on him.

“I don’t know how we’re not even, and then he punches me in the face. I can’t even tell if he really punched me in the face, it was so soft.”

Smith said he planned on doing more than throwing the single punch because “I was extremely pissed off.”

Smith noted when he and Custer were racing each other the Stewart-Haas Racing driver “didn’t even try to make the corner.”

“Granted, I moved him the lap before, but I’m beating his bumper off for the five laps before that,” Smith said. “I gave him grace, before I finally shipped him, and then he doesn’t even try to give me a chance going into turn one. It is what it is. We’re not going to go race for a championship and that’s OK. We’re going to Phoenix, and we’re going to try and kick their ass there. He can think we’re even, but he’s got more at stake next week than I do.”

Joining Custer in the Championship Four are Justin Allgaier, Austin Hill and A.J. Allmendinger.

When Friday night’s Truck race concluded, Eckes joined Grant Enfinger, Ty Majeski and Corey Heim in that series’ Championship Four.

The fireworks erupted after that 200-lap race because Gray, who was on fresher tires than Eckes, believed he raced Eckes clean, but the favor wasn’t returned.

“We go on the restart and raced him clean through (turns) one and two,” Gray said. “Clear him off of (turn) two, and he goes into (turn) three and completely ships me to the fence. Now granted, it is Martinsville. I was expecting to get moved. I wasn’t expecting to get moved to the fence, especially with how I raced him, and he is locked into the Final Four.

“The only thing he did was put a target on his back. Unfortunately, this day and age I can’t go to Phoenix and do anything to him because I’m going to get a $20,000 fine. So, he gets away with that crap and doesn’t get any repercussion. I guess the only thing I could have done is wreck him like he wrecked me.

“What goes around comes around. I have to race him next year all year long.”

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin noted Saturday that NASCAR racing has always been a “self-policing sport until it is not.”

“It is very difficult to know when is the right time because you would think you could just do it on the race track and those words self-policing have been used for decades and decades and still used today,” Hamlin said. “NASCAR never wants to get in the middle of officiating contact, although they do at times, but then you open yourself up to what is too blatant and that is a very murky line.”