This past Saturday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway was a black eye for the sport, as the event transitioned from a potential exciting finish to an embarrassing demolition derby.
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There were 14 cautions and 104 laps run under yellow, not to mention the horrendous race finish and multi-car wreck at the finish line (that actually didn’t count in the 14 cautions because the race had already finished). That prompted TV analyst Kyle Petty — son of the legendary Richard Petty and seemingly never at a loss for an opinion — to give his solution to the issue.
For Petty, penalties — be they loss of points or loss of money — just aren’t strong enough to send a message to young aspiring drivers or team owners. Petty proposes something much harsher.
“Here’s what NASCAR does,” Petty said on the NASCAR Daily Show. “They put on their big boy pants and send these guys home. They make them sit at home.
“Take something away. Don’t take money, don’t take points, take away the opportunity to sit in that car and hang onto that steering wheel and race. Let them watch races and understand how it should be done.”
While seemingly harsh, those types of penalties will most definitely get the attention of everyone in the sport, including drivers, crew chiefs, team owners, and most importantly, sponsors.
“NASCAR (is) the last line of defense of the sport,” Petty said. “They can keep the integrity of the sport and the spirit of the sport where it needs to be. It’s not all on them, they were put in this position by so many people leading up to that: by the parents, by the crew chiefs, by the owners, by the spotters, by all those people, by all those attitudes these kids bring into the sport.
“(NASCAR has) to be the final word, they have to say, ‘sit it out for five or six weeks, bud. Sorry, but if you’re going to drive with your head up your rear end where you can’t see, then you can sit at home and watch it on TV where you can see it.’ That’s where it needs to be.”
“Until the sanctioning body is willing to step up and penalize the teams, the owners, the crew chiefs, and drivers because of these cases, it’s not going to change. When the sponsor sees their driver is sitting at home, they’re going to say, ‘Whoa, I don’t want any part of this.’”
Petty then hypothesized NASCAR firmly telling anyone on the competition side, “Sorry about that, you should have thought about that before you wrecked somebody, you should have thought about losing that potential sponsor, losing that fan base.”
“NASCAR has to step in. I don’t care, that’s just my opinion: to turn this ship around or head it in another direction, NASCAR has to make a stand.”
Here’s the perspective from driver-owners:
Several drivers, who are also team owners, including RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski and 23XI co-owner and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin, suggested other ways to handle the problem.
First, here’s Keselowski’s take on X: “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’ve been really quiet on this over the last few days but it’s clear this is important to fix and also clear that it’s bigger than 1 race weekend.
My 2 cents- The solution needs to come from the car owners not NASCAR. Until the car owners are willing to park their drivers for… https://t.co/JvJw1q4X4A
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) March 31, 2025
Hamlin’s take is a bit different. Rather than wait until after a race is over before assessing penalties, Hamlin advocates immediate punishment while the race is still going on.
In other words, Hamlin says NASCAR should use the currently rarely used black flag more often, which immediately parks a driver and forces them to come into the NASCAR hauler to talk with sanctioning body officials.
Hamlin said, “I don’t understand what’s so hard about making the call because even in the CARS Tour races they have it, right? You spin someone out, and it looks like you could have not done that; they’ll put you in the back.”
“That is the one thing that will keep you from just cleaning someone out.”
“Even in our local short tracks, they implement the Black Flag for reasons… and we have that flag for a reason. It’s my opinion we need to use it in egregious situations.”
