Saturday evening's Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway sparked considerable criticism due to what many called a lack of respect throughout the field. Now, Brad Keselowski has proposed parking the offending drivers.
However, the RFK Racing driver-owner isn't asking NASCAR to make these decisions. He wants his fellow team owners to get involved in fixing an issue that has specifically surfaced at Martinsville Speedway in recent seasons.
"The solution needs to come from the car owners not NASCAR," Keselowski posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. "Until the car owners are willing to park their drivers for getting this out of control, very little will change.
"I get that they are all scared to park a funded driver out of fear they will lose the money to continue operations. However, at some point, that's the risk you have to take to get this right. I believe if all of the teams do it together, it would work."
The early stages at Martinsville Speedway did not have ultra-aggressive moves throughout the Xfinity Series field. The caution waved, but only for relatively minor incidents. The final stage, for comparison, featured 10 cautions as drivers knocked each other out of the way.
The incident that drew the most criticism happened on the final lap. Sammy Smith slammed into race leader Taylor Gray and sent him up the track toward the outside wall. This sparked a multi-car incident that collected a good portion of the field. Several slid across the line while wrecking.
Smith's contact with Gray led to a verbal altercation outside of the infield care center. Yet, this was not the only argument that occurred. Jeb Burton also confronted Daniel Dye at the care center after some run-ins earlier in the race.
Several Xfinity drivers voiced their frustration after the chaotic race, but some also used the excuse of "everyone else is driving this way, so I have to" as well.
This is not the sole example of this aggressiveness at Martinsville. Ty Gibbs pulled a similar move against teammate Brandon Jones during a playoff race in 2022. Austin Hill slammed into then-teammate Sheldon Creed in the 2023 playoff race, a move he indicated he regrets years later.
Parking these drivers would not be a simple task, as Keselowski indicated. Competing in a national NASCAR series takes a considerable amount of money, which these drivers bring to the table with big-name sponsors.
There is a risk of upsetting the sponsor by parking a driver for egregious moves. There is also a possibility that doing so would force the drivers to adjust future behavior.
Denny Hamlin, one of Keselowski's fellow team owners, also weighed in on the Xfinity Series race. He spoke to media members after winning Sunday's Cup Series race and indicated that NASCAR needs to penalize the offending drivers.
"I think the sanctioning body needs to get involved a little bit and step in on egregious things," Hamlin said. "I think it's continued to ramp up, right? We've seen this stuff.
"It used to only happen on green-white-checkereds. Then this place, it seemed like inside 20 to go people would lose their minds. Those guys (on Saturday) 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.
"Certainly you shouldn't be able to just wipe someone out egregiously like what happened at the end of the race yesterday. Certainly, we have a black flag for a reason. I think we should start using it."
The discussion about the Xfinity race and aggressiveness in all three series will continue throughout the season, especially as more short tracks loom on the schedule. This includes a return to Martinsville in the playoffs when the stakes are even higher.
Will NASCAR step in and penalize drivers? Will team owners agree with Keselowski and start parking drivers who unnecessarily destroy their equipment?