OPINION: NASCAR’s Race Craft Issue, And Can It Be Fixed?

Co-written by staff writers Seth Eggert and Alan Nadeau III

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Ask any NASCAR fan what they think of the sport’s three national touring series, in terms of which one puts on the best races, and you may find that the answer turns out to be the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

NASCAR’s second-tier division often provides nostalgia to what fans want the NASCAR Cup Series to be again, and with its mix of veterans and the young up-and-comers, so often the Xfinity Series does end up being the best race of the weekend … except when it isn’t.

For every great Xfinity Series race, there is another race where the series falls on its face, and the recent Marine Corps 250 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway was one of those races, bringing up the issues of respect and race craft in the sport.

Numerous drivers and other members of the NASCAR industry and community lambasted the race, leading to multiple discussions as to why and where these issues stem from. Quite frankly, it all doesn’t stem from one issue or another, but a combination of various factors that led to the issues we have currently.

So, let’s take some time and take a gander at these issues, to try and pinpoint where they come from and what solutions there might be.

One of the primary arguments as to why there is such a lack of respect in current-era NASCAR is the pool of young drivers entering the sport and the fact that many are “pay drivers,” or drivers with massive amounts of money – typically from their families – backing them and thus allowing them to take rides with top teams without having to work their way up the racing ladder the way other drivers do and have done in the past.

While pay drivers have always existed across the motorsports industry, it becomes an issue when those pay drivers are coming in at a young age and impacting the sport because of how they race.

Current CARS Tour driver Landon Huffman offered his thoughts to X (formerly Twitter), noting that, “[Ninety percent] of the driver pool are not true, racing drivers from a racing background. It’s all pay to play until I can’t pay anymore.”

Adding to this, prior to the Martinsville race weekend, Kyle Busch spoke on Kevin Harvick’s ‘Happy Hour’ podcast and said that, “There’s no fixing what we’ve got going right now…they would much rather crash than win the race.”

As if Busch’s words were an omen, following a litany of cautions and wrecks, Sammy Smith drove into the back of Taylor Gray entering turn three on the final lap. In the ensuing chaos, Smith spinning Gray allowed Austin Hill to win as the field wrecked behind him.

That being said, Busch does have his own past with rough driving, arguably the most infamous example being his 2011 incident at Texas Motor Speedway with Ron Hornaday Jr. in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. In that race, Busch deliberately chased down and wrecked Hornaday under caution (which resulted in his suspension for the rest of the weekend).

That should, however, make Busch’s opinion even more valid because he knows in hindsight that he messed up.

Take Harvick as another example, who was also a noted hot-head early in his career.

Following Martinsville, he pointed out that, “I know that when I was their age, I would do the same things, but my ass would be in the trailer getting reamed out by Mike Helton, with Jim Hunter standing outside the door laughing and Bill France Jr. wanting to know when I was going to get suspended because we made a mockery out of [NASCAR’s] show....”

That’s another major issue, is that no one is truly holding these young drivers accountable for this behavior. Veterans such as Elliott Sadler, Jeff Burton, Mark Martin, and others that once guided the garage with their wisdom have long since retired.

While drivers will get docked points and money, such as the 50-point penalty and $50,000 fine handed down to Smith, the cycle simply repeats. The punishments may fit the crimes, but the message is not being received by the drivers who aren’t being penalized.

Because of that, they feel like they can keep getting away with it and only lose points that can be recovered as the season goes on.

With how NASCAR is structured, with an emphasis on running every race, drivers aren’t getting sat down for a race or two by the team for bad behavior. All of these things lead to the current epidemic of rough driving among drivers that NASCAR simply will not deal with in the moment in which the incident happens, which is a major problem.

YouTuber Jesse King made a video discussing his thoughts regarding the various reasons that fans will bring up to defend the actions that we see today, from “rubbing is racing” to “it's just short track racing,” among other points.

Specifically countering the “it's just short track racing” issue, he brings up multiple times how the CARS Tour penalizes what they call “avoidable contact” by sending the perpetrator to the rear of the field, something NASCAR themselves can, should, and once upon a time did do.

At the same time, King also explicitly states that, yes, these calls are not always perfect. Accidents happen, mistakes happen, but we are all human. However, in contrast to NASCAR, it just seems like the sanctioning body doesn’t want to make those mistakes, because they’ve done it before and are tired of being yelled at for making them … except that not making a decision, in and of itself, is also a mistake.

To quote the song “Freewill” by Rush, “if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” NASCAR officiating is choosing not to decide until days after the race, instead of making a call in the moment. Because of that, drivers – particularly the younger ones – are using that to their advantage.

There are plenty of other issues that play into what we are seeing in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series, as well as the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Some would argue that young drivers are being pushed up the ladder too fast partially because of the money going in, but also due to the demise of other series like the ARCA Menards Series, and the overall issue of how much more expensive it is for people to race.

There’s also the issue of drivers not being able to fight, or get confrontational, without NASCAR officials being right there to break it up. Many have said that then leads to issues being settled on the track instead of in the pits, thus leading to cars getting torn up more and more.

Additionally, mentioned in King’s video is the fact that the younger drivers we see today have grown up constantly hearing the “boys have at it” mantra, which NASCAR themselves have been trying to phase out as they take more control over the sport, for better or for worse.

But each of these issues, and more, are microcosms of the bigger issues already mentioned.

Adding to the melting pot of driver backgrounds and the various penalties that drivers have received for rough driving or retaliations is “that every retaliation is unique,” as NASCAR Communications’ Mike Forde said on a March episode of the Hauler Talk podcast.

While that is certainly true, Seth Eggert and Justin Schuoler have researched and documented as many retaliations and rough driving penalties in the history of the three national touring series as possible at Motorsports Reference. In the past 20 years, 189 cases of retaliation resulted in 64 penalties.

While each one is unique as Forde said, the penalty issued, or lack thereof, slowly eroded away the acceptable race craft as drivers tested the waters of what they could get away with more and more.

While not a direct cause of the Martinsville madness, the decisions that NASCAR has made over the years has made it so that, to quote “Evolve” by The Warning, NASCAR is “not in danger, I’m the danger.” Allowing these shenanigans to go on for as long as they have has caused the integrity of the sport to be called into question once again.

What can be done to fix these issues?

“The racers have to return so the race craft can return, and the respect can return,” said Huffman in his social media post. However, he also added that “the solution is so long-term that it isn’t achievable.”

If that is the case, what can be done in the short term? At this point, the answers are right in front of us, and it’s all down to NASCAR being willing to make change.

Drivers need to be penalized in the moment, by getting sent to the rear of the field or even parked for a few laps to calm down, to hopefully deter some of these issues.

Penalties need to be more consistent across the board, with little to no leeway given, and precedents need to be set and followed. Yes, everything goes on a case by case basis, and every situation is different, but consistency can still be achieved.

Perhaps notably, the Xfinity Series field was called into a drivers-only, sit-down meeting ahead of last weekend’s race at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, to discuss Martinsville and attempt to get the drivers to race a bit smarter going forward.

Will those choices – on both sides – be made going forward? That’s a question that only time will give the answer to.

The opinions expressed are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of Race Face Brand Development, Race Face Media, their staff, partners, or other subsidiaries.