“It’s bigger than 1 race weekend.” Brad Keselowski was among the NASCAR veterans who bashed last weekend’s Xfinity chaos. 14 caution flags were waved during the race at Martinsville Speedway across 104 laps, the most in Xfinity in 18 years. Of the final 202 laps of the race, an incredible 51 percent were run under the yellow flag. This unbridled chaos led fans to bash NASCAR to do something – but the RFK Racing owner figures the onus extends beyond that.

Among the rabble-rousers who chose vengeance last Saturday, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s driver stood out. Sammy Smith was exchanging barbs with Taylor Gray all afternoon, but things climaxed on the last lap. Keselowski stresses that more needs to be done to prevent drivers like Smith from going into rampages.

Brad Keselowski drops the responsibility on Dale Jr.

Well, Sammy Smith had a plan in mind. Remember Austin Dillon’s antics at Richmond Raceway last August? He delivered right-rear hooks to both Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to grab the lead and charge for the Cup Series race win. So, after Taylor Gray ticked off Smith by allegedly flipping the bird, the latter proceeded to imitate Dillon. However, his plan backfired. He plowed his No. 8 Chevy into the race-leading No. 54 Toyota on the last lap and caused a multi-car melee, while Austin Hill shot forward to the victory. Although Smith’s intentions were not a huge crash, the very fact that he chose to take that risk is concerning for Brad Keselowski. He urges team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. to take responsibility alongside NASCAR.

In a Sirius XM episode, Brad Keselowski looked longingly at a time when such egregious actions were unthinkable. If Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt Sr destroyed cars during their younger years, their careers would have had an early exit. Keselowski said: “I feel like if you look back at the sport, you know, 10, 20, 30 years ago, I think NASCAR ruled with an iron fist, but so did the team owners. There were, to a certain extent, a lot of owners – you know, if you tore their cars up, you didn’t get a new contract next year. In a lot of cases, as I remember, drivers getting changed out in the middle of the year for tearing up cars.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. received a lot of backlash on X for his silence after the events that transpired last Saturday. At one point, he even came clean, replying to one disgruntled fan, writing, “You think I’m supposed to broadcast how I manage those situations? Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.” A plethora of fans claimed that Jr. should park Sammy Smith for the next race, to which Dale Jr. directly responded via the Dale Jr. Download, saying, “There are a lot of people out there that are like, ‘Oh man, NASCAR’s gotta park him. Dale Jr. should park him.’ You know, anyone who thinks I’m gonna park Sammy, that’s out of the question. Never gonna happen.” Dale Jr.’s stoic demeanor amidst NASCAR themselves handing out a penalty is why fans were up in arms. Meanwhile, Keselowski detailed how he would handle the situation, as he is also a team owner at RFK Racing.

NASCAR did its part – it slapped Sammy Smith with a $25,000 penalty and a 50-point redux. Brad Keselowski stressed that team owners like Dale Jr. should share the onus and also gave an example of how he would handle it. “I’m seeing a lot of these fingers pointing at NASCAR… I’m very hesitant in pointing my finger at NASCAR as they should always have to come in and police this… I ask myself, ‘If I own one of these teams, how would I handle it?’… I would probably sit the driver down until they figure it out because this is an unacceptable standard.” 

While Brad Keselowski’s concerns may not have rattled Dale Jr. yet, NASCAR is already taking more steps. The Xfinity troublemakers will have to answer for their actions this week.

Initiating a harsh conversation

Sammy Smith was not the only troublemaker in Martinsville. According to Denny Hamlin, even race winner Austin Hill and Dale Jr.’s other star, Sam Mayer, wreaked havoc. When things spiraled out of control on the last lap, Hill hit Justin Allgaier to get ahead. Meanwhile, Mayer engaged in aggressive moves in the first half of the race. So, NASCAR has had to handle a lot of rowdy cases during the Paperclip event. Additionally, Taylor Gray and Jeb Burton were given $5000 fines for attempting to confront Smith and disrupting the peace of the infield care center. Now, the sport’s executives are planning to dive deeper into this matter. They will meet with the Xfinity drivers on Saturday at Darlington Raceway. “It takes zero talent, zero talent, to do and make some of the moves that those guys made on Saturday,” Senior VP of Competition Elton Sawyer said.

Sawyer recently said what the purpose for holding this meeting would be. “I think it’s mostly just letting them understand, or at least give them the message of how they can process what happened (last) Saturday and how they learn from that and earn the respect of their fellow competitors. NASCAR racing, we’ve been built on, pushing and shoving is fine, tire marks are fine, and that’s OK. It’s a contact sport. We totally get that. But we do have to step in from time to time when they cross the line. We just want to let them know that this is crossing the line, and we will step in.”

Evidently, Brad Keselowski’s defending NASCAR makes sense, as the executives are doing their part. However, Dale Jr. and other team owners may need to step up with mounting calls.