NASCAR

Denny Hamlin demands NASCAR punishment action after 'horrible' Martinsville incident

Simmey Hannifin Donaldson Tuesday 1 April 2025 14:00 Updated: 22:33

Photo: © IMAGO

Denny Hamlin has called for NASCAR to start taking punishment action after the chaotic end to a race at Martinsville this past weekend.

Hamlin won Sunday's Cup Series race in dominant fashion to take his first win of 2025 and his first at Martinsville Speedway in a decade. However, post-race, Saturday's Xfinity Series race was on his mind.

The US Marine Corps 250 ended in chaos the night before Hamlin's victory, with Sammy Smith deciding to intentionally wreck Taylor Gray deep into overtime despite the pair being first and second at the time.

Both drivers were taken out of contention for the victory as a result, and there was carnage that followed as the domino effect of their collision was felt.

Hamlin took to social media with a very critical verdict of the finish on Saturday night, slamming the 'idiots', but called for NASCAR action when discussing it a day later.

A replay of the #NASCAROvertime finish at @MartinsvilleSwy. pic.twitter.com/fGJecynkQT
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) March 29, 2025

NASCAR HEADLINES: Denny Hamlin slams 'IDIOTS', Cup Series team facing suspension

Denny Hamlin demands NASCAR action

Quizzed on his tweets regarding the finish, Hamlin said: "Yeah, certainly I think the sanctioning body needs to get involved a little bit and step in on egregious things,"

"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.

Going further, Hamlin called for NASCAR to start using the black flag.

"Certainly you shouldn’t be able to just wipe someone out egregiously like what happened at the end of the race yesterday," he continued.

"Certainly we have a black flag for a reason. I think we should start using it.”

NASCAR Denny Hamlin Martinsville Sammy Smith Taylor Gray

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