Denny Hamlin reacts to Martinsville Xfinity race, gives props for not turning it into a ‘s**t show’

Denny Hamlin liked what he saw from the drivers at the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville on Saturday. On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin shared his reaction to Taylor Gray winning the race.

“Very timely win,” Denny Hamlin said. “Very strong there in the spring. Didn’t get the win. Sammy [Smith] kind of got desperate there and made a move on him. It looked like an absolute replay on the last lap of kind of how far he was back, but I think Sammy thought better of it this time, and says, ‘Yeah, I can’t do that twice.’

“Sammy was in a position where if he wins that race, he moves on. So good restraint by him on that and really kind of all-around job well done from the Xfinity Series not turning this into a s**t show like i usually is.”

Gray pulled away from Smith after an overtime restart to earn his first victory in the Xfinity Series. And as Hamlin mentioned, had Smith won on Saturday, he would have advanced to the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship race at Phoenix this Saturday. Gray’s win led to Carson Kvapil making it to the Championship 4, and he will join Jesse Love, Justin Allgaier, and rookie Connor Zilisch.

More on the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville

After the race, Gray reacted to getting his first Xfinity Series victory. “(Crew chief) Jason Ratcliff, all these guys – the pit crew did an awesome job tonight,” Gray said, per NASCAR.com. “They give me opportunities to win every time I walk through the gates to this race track.

“I knew I needed to get a good enough launch so that I wouldn’t have anyone in reach of me heading into Turn 1. At that point, I knew we had a good enough car to drive away from the guys behind me.”

Smith shared his thoughts on just missing out on the championship race. “I feel like we’re good enough to be in the final four,” Smith said. “We weren’t good enough in the playoffs to do that. It really sucks, so we’ll just regroup and keep digging.”

The Xfinity Series Championship race will start at 7:30 p.m. ET at Phoenix Raceway on The CW. This will also be he final race with Xfinity serving as the series entitlement sponsor.