“Absolute Garbage.” “It’s a damn shame.” These hopeless statements surfaced on social media from NASCAR veterans last Saturday. The Xfinity Series race at Martinsville created one of the most reckless wreck fests in the sport. Drivers intentionally went into wild rampages and caused 14 cautions. The most notable one was Sammy Smith, turning out race leader Taylor Gray on the last lap, leaving a slew of other cars battered. The solution for this lies in a rigid approach, according to Jeff Burton.

The NASCAR Hall of Famer was a permanent fixture in the sport, having won 27 Xfinity Series wins. The NBC Sports racing analyst saw his nephew Jeb Burton also get involved in the wild Martinsville melee. So Jeff Burton did not mince his words while dissecting the dilemma.

Jeff Burton believes in punishment of the highest order

Well, the circumstances were such at Martinsville Speedway. The 0.526-mile short track is particularly vulnerable to such aggressive situations, but last week was different. An incredible 51 percent of the final 202 laps of the race were run under the yellow flag. The 104 total caution laps were the most in an Xfinity Series race in 18 years. So many drivers chose to bulldoze into each other. Besides the Smith-Gray encounter on the last lap, Jesse Love’s No. 2 Chevrolet confronted Carson Kvapil’s No. 1 Chevy. Then, Kvapil drove into Sam Mayer’s No. 41 Chevy at one point.

The sheer number of times that a driver decided to take revenge was jaw-dropping. So the Xfinity Series race at the Paperclip left a bitter aftertaste in Jeff Burton, who said, “The entire race was just unacceptable.” He swatted away the notion that the drivers are inexperienced (Sammy Smith is the 2021 ARCA Menards champion). “And what’s so frustrating about it is that you’ll see on social media, ‘Well, these young brats, they don’t care, they’re not talented.’ Bullc—. These are very good race car drivers. These guys have talent. It’s not that they don’t have talent; it’s that there’s a lack of respect, the lack of accountability for these kinds of actions.”

After Wayne Auton stepped down, Eric Peterson took over the directorial role in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2025. Jeff Burton insisted that the new director has to have an iron-handed approach. “I think he can take this as an opportunity to get these Xfinity drivers together and say, ‘Look, we’re not going to put up with this. Like, if we’re going to have this many young drivers, then by definition, it’s a development series, and we’re going to treat it as such. And if you do these things, we’re going to park you, we’re going to black flag you, we’re going to park you during the race,’ and I don’t like that.” 

A black flag would send them to the pits for a hazardous or illegal move, and that’s what Jeff Burton feels these drivers deserve. And to be honest, it might be hard to disagree here. Wrecking the entire field on the last stretch in pursuit of a better finish should be unacceptable, especially on a short track. On top of that, to do it at Martinsville, a track with such a storied history, being on the grid since 1949, feels outright disrespectful. Dale Earnhardt Jr. put it best, writing on X, “This racetrack is historic in the grand scheme of all things NASCAR and deserves better.”

Jeb Burton, who finished 11th after getting caught in the crash, also voiced a similar opinion as his uncle. The lack of respect is stunning in the country’s second-most popular racing series, whereas smaller series follow norms. “It’s sad when no one drives with any respect…When I grew up, late model racing, they would call for rough driving and use a flag called the black flag. When is the last time we used that? You race like a m—– you get sent to the rear. The damn local track today does it, but we can’t?”

To add to the rumbling of discontent in the Xfinity Series, the Cup Series drivers didn’t mince their words, either. Drivers are hoping for stern rules to reverse this situation.

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Speaking from experience

The Cup Series involves heftier financial penalties than the Xfinity Series. That is why the sense of awareness is a little stronger for the top-tier racers. Last year, Bubba Wallace lightly door-slammed Alex Bowman on the cooldown lap at the Chicago Street Race. NASCAR slapped him with a $50,000 penalty, especially because Bowman’s window flap was down. Then, during the Spring race in Phoenix, Denny Hamlin cost himself $50 grand along with 25 points after intentionally wrecking Ross Chastain. Similarly, during the last lap of the Martinsville Xfinity Series race, Sammy Smith was wreaking vengeance. He was not happy about Taylor Gray flipping him the bird, so he responded by deciding to deprive him of the victory. He delivered a hard bump to Gray with no attempt to just get him loose to get by.

So, Denny Hamlin, who won the Cup Series race in Martinsville, voiced Jeff Burton’s sentiments. He said: “The sanctioning body needs to get involved a little bit and step in on egregious things. I think it’s continued to ramp up, right? We’ve seen this stuff.” Hamlin continued that he still feels shocked about the egregious nature of the crash. “It used to only happen on green-white-checkered. Then this place, it seemed like inside 20 [laps] to go, people would lose their minds. Those guys yesterday did it with 50 to go, absolutely just creaming each other. It was just horrible driving by most of the people out there. It’s just not a good look.”

Christopher Bell, who finished runner-up to Hamlin, also touched on the situation post-race, saying, “My blood was boiling inside the motorhome just watching it. It was a disgrace for our sport. That should not be tolerated, not the last lap, but just the whole thing. We gotta hold ourselves to better standards; that was embarrassing.” Bell has long been an advocate of clean racing, especially after his win at the Circuit of The Americas in 2025, which received high praise from the community for the nature of the duel between Kyle Busch and Bell. It’s no surprise that the #20 is upset, and he certainly isn’t alone.

Evidently, the NASCAR Xfinity Series has drummed up a negative reputation in one weekend. With Jeff Burton and other veterans calling for strict action, let us see what the authorities do. Do you think NASCAR needs to put its foot down against Xfinity drivers? Let us know in the comments!