After Xfinity Series' Martinsville disaster, NASCAR must step in

It's rare that the main talking point of a NASCAR weekend isn't Sunday's Cup Series race, but following the spring race weekend at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, that's exactly what happened. 

Saturday night's NASCAR Xfinity Series race — especially the third stage — was a messy, caution-filled affair. Of the race's 14 cautions, 10 came in the final stage. 

The average green flag run Saturday was just 10.1 laps, with 104 of the race's 256 laps (40.6 percent) run under the yellow flag. 

It wasn't the first time a race at Martinsville, especially one in the Xfinity Series, devolved into chaos, but the most egregious accident of the night pushed it over the top. 

With two laps to go, a spin brought out the final caution flag of the race and set up NASCAR overtime. 

Sammy Smith led the field to the green flag in overtime. Brandon Jones was to Smith's outside, but Smith's biggest threat raced behind him in third: rookie Taylor Gray, driving the No. 54 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. 

On the previous green-white checkered restart, Smith had moved Gray up the track in the first turn to take the lead. Now with the roles reversed, Gray did the same to Smith, muscling his way beside Smith. 

With half a lap to go, Gray cleared Smith on the exit of turn 2, even pulling away slightly as the field roared toward turn 3 for the final time. 

As Gray and Smith went into turn 3, Smith sent his No. 8 Chevrolet into the corner from the next county over, diving into the turn with reckless abandon and apparently no desire to make the corner. 

Contact from Smith's front bumper to Gray's back bumper sent Gray around and Smith up the track. As the rest of the field tried to squeeze by on the inside, multiple drivers made heavy contact. 

When the dust settled, Austin Hill won. But in the moment and in the days to come, that hardly mattered.