“NASCAR Said, ‘Park It!’” – Xfinity Driver Josh Williams Deciphering His Controversial Mid-Race Exit, Triggers “Scapegoat” Comment From Veteran Cup Series Spotter

Last weekend at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, there was a controversial moment. As it happened, NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Josh Williams was caught up in a wreck and sustained damage. This damage was enough for the officials to give out the order for him to come into the pit lane. However, something might have gotten lost in translation and he interpreted some other instructions.

Recently, he made an appearance on the Door Bumper Clear podcast to finally clear the air.

Williams said on the podcast, “NASCAR said, ‘Park it’, and I said, ‘Come again?’. He said they told us to park it. Then it got real quiet for a long time.”

“I’m like, ‘just riding around’. I was like, ‘Hello, are we really done? Is this serious?’. At this point, I’m like creeping down the front stretch and I stopped. I didn’t do it right then, I just stopped and I was like waiting. There was nothing. Apparently, they were all talking to the officials. I just unplugged and like, ‘I’m just going to get out’.”

“It was like that, I wasn’t like running around like, ‘Oh, I’m going to cause a scene’. I was like slowing down, be like, ‘What are we doing?’.”

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Veteran NASCAR spotter Brett Griffin offered his take on the saga

All in all, it just appears to be a massive case of mixed signals between the driver and the officials. Maybe if the officials had told him to park in the garage, Williams would have understood better. In essence, the order from the officials’ tower really confused him, so he stopped on the front stretch.

Now, veteran spotter Brett Griffin gave his take on the scenario, and he had bad news. According to Griffin, while the fans may be on Williams’ side, he will still have to face the officials for his punishment.

Griffin observed, “This is getting so much attention because the court of public opinion is on your side. I hate to tell you, that’s not going to help you when they make the decision as to what they’re going to do to you.”

“At the end of the day, I go back to what I said, the TV broadcast was so extended and Justin Allgaier called it ‘Embarrassing’. I think we were just to the point where you were just a scapegoat for, ‘Man! This is a bad broadcast and we’re going to park this guy’.” 

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For the moment, all that Josh Williams can do is wait for any ruling from the officials. After all, his dramatic exit did mean that he broke a few rules, so he had to face the consequences.