NASCAR announce heavy penalty after 'disgraceful' incident

NASCAR have announced a heavy penalty for the protagonist of Saturday night's chaotic Xfinity Series race end.

Sammy Smith came from way back to punt Taylor Gray into a spin on the final lap of the race, sparking a chain reaction of wrecks and a whole heap of criticism from seasoned Cup Series drivers.

NASCAR has docked Smith 50 points and fined him $25,000 for the incident, which knocks him down from sixth to 13th in the points standings, with a series official calling the move 'over the line'.

Christopher Bell had some of the most severe words about the wreck from any current driver, saying: "My blood was boiling inside the motorhome watching it. It was a disgrace for our sport. That should not be tolerated. Not just the last lap, but the whole thing. We've got to hold ourselves to better standards than that. That was embarrassing."

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Sammy Smith penalized for Martinsville wreck

Xfinity Series Managing Director Eric Peterson said: “We want to see really hard racing and door-to-door racing, and contact is certainly a part of the sport and part of the sport at Martinsville Speedway.

"We felt like after looking at all the facts, all the video, the team audio, SMT data and all the tools, we have to work with and review an incident like that. Unfortunately, what Sammy did was over the line and something that we feel like we had to react to. We would prefer to leave it in the driver’s hands but in this case, it wasn’t really a racing move and we reacted to it as such.”

Gray and Jeb Burton were also fined $5,000 each for 'behavioral penalties' over their conduct at the Infield Care Center after the race, with NASCAR’s Managing Director of Racing Communications Mike Forde telling the Hauler Talk podcast: “Taylor and Jeb were in the care center post-race and there was some behavior that (NASCAR officials) felt stepped over the line as far as interrupting a medical situation.

"The care center is almost an on-site hospital, so the drivers and any competitor that enters that area, there should be a sense of decorum there.”

READ MORE: Michael Jordan's 23XI suffer championship setback as star plummets following Martinsville disqualification

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