What a season it’s been for Dale Earnhardt Jr owned JR Motorsports. First, all of its drivers qualified for the 2024 Xfinity Series playoffs, and now three of them are fighting to make it in the top 4. However, the opening race of the round of 8 was a mixed bag for the team. In the Las Vegas race, Justin Allgaier took P3, which is his first top-5 finish after eight races.

On the other hand, Sam Mayer had a p14 finish and Sammy Smith, after a myriad of problems, ended the race in the 32nd position. Owing to this, Mayer with -23 is 7th in the top 8 and Smith with -53 points sits in the last spot. Adding to Smith’s already disappointing day, some fans accused him of cheating in the race. However, Smith’s legion of fans swarmed to his defense.

Sammy Smith’s final stage problem – genuine or not?

The JRM star in only his second full-time Xfinity season made it to the playoffs back-to-back in two seasons. The Iowa native after his Talladega win booked a spot in the top 8. However, he did not have the best start to the round. Sammy Smith was hoping for a good finish after starting the race in P5. However, little did he know about the mountain of problems awaiting him. The #8 quickly dropped outside the top 10 in the first stage. However, the JRM driver claimed back up finishing stage 2 in 12th place.

It was in the final stage of the race that everything went downhill. At the start of the final stage, the #8 rammed into the back of Taylor Gray, leading to him spinning. This caused damage to Sammy Smith’s car too. However, he chose to stay out and restart from the 11th position. But the JRM driver just did not have the pace and had to pit mid-stage for repairs. This was not the end of it. After he made it back, a voltage issue caused his car to slow down as it lost power with just 7 laps to go. However, as the caution was raised, Smith surprisingly got the power back.

The timing of Smith gaining power at the exact moment the yellow flag was thrown, has many speculating about some fishy business. This was the moment when AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg, and Justin Allgaier were fighting for the lead. Some fans accused Smith of deliberately slowing down to bring in a caution for letting his teammate, Allgaier, trailing in 3rd position to take the lead on the restart. However, even if it was done deliberately, it wasn’t fruitful as the positions remained unchanged post the restart. Allmendinger took the chequered flag, Sieg finished in P2 and Allgaier took the 3rd position.

Smith, speaking about the incident, said, “We lost voltage and we had to change of battery it was kind of spidering that whole last stage and just lost voltage.” However, fans are not buying this explanation as they accuse him of faking it for Allgaier’s benefit. Some even called out NASCAR to penalize him. But some fans have chosen to back Smith’s explanation as they found it to be a genuine problem.

Fans back Sammy Smith’s claims amid wave of backlash

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Fans have come up with their own theories dwelling while defending Smith’s claims. The issue highlighted was if Sammy Smith lost power due to voltage issues, how did it get self-repaired? A fan explaining this talked about how simply turning the car off and back on can lead to gaining the power back. The fan wrote, “If it was a voltage issue then power cycling the car could give you this exact scenario.” Another fan echoed the same emotion when he wrote, Damn yall really want to be outraged about everything. The 7 was having voltage issues, not unreasonable that his teammate would as well. Cycling the engine could get it refired.”

Smith was already three laps down and there was nothing he could do to salvage the situation. According to some fans, Smith jumped at the first opportunity he got to help his teammate out. However, a Smith fan rubbished these arguments as he wrote, “Pretty sure he had legit issues. In the full replay you could see him get it fired then it died again that’s when the caution came out. There was a puff of smoke that came out the pipe when he came out of turn 2.” Smoke or no smoke fans continued to rally behind Smith.

The next fan’s theory seems more believable. NASCAR cars have switchable ignition, which means, if one coil goes bad, the driver can switch to a secondary one from inside the car and keep racing. The fan, not liking the way the #8 was getting the backlash, wrote, “He could have had to swap the ignition system over to the secondary/backup. That’s happened ever since they went to having the ignition boxes in the cabin of the cars (decades). Y’all are like coyotes barking at mice.

Another fan wrote, “Certainly suspicious but what is there to gain from this? Maybe a W from the 7? At this point, even a wreck on a restart still puts those drivers ahead of the 8.” Well, technically a caution was all Allgaier needed at that moment, it’s a different story that he failed to capitalize on it. Rather, it helped Sieg to get really close to Allmendinger in the final lap.

What did you think of the incident? Deliberate or not? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.