Denny Hamlin calls on NASCAR to act after "horrible driving" in Xfinity race

Hamlin encouraged the sanctioning body to react to the lack of professionalism seen in the NASCAR Xfinity race at Martinsville or risk it happening again.

Though Denny Hamlin won Sunday's NASCAR Cup race at Martinsville in dominant fashion, leading 274 of 400 laps, with a clean 75-lap run to the finish — the Xfinity race was a very different story. With just 100 laps to go, the drivers managed to earn nine cautions, all culminating in a last-lap melee at the front of the field. Sammy Smith came from several car lengths back, intentionally wrecking Taylor Gray for the win. He hit him so hard, it buckled the nose of his car in the process. Smith ended up wrecking as well, taking several cars with him.

Hamlin, with everyone's attention in the winner's press conference after collecting the 55th checkered flag of his Cup career the following day, took the moment to comment on the chaotic Xfinity finish, which he was already outspoken on social media about, calling it "absolute garbage" and noting how if he was in the booth, "I'd get fired but I damn sure would call these idiots out."

Penalties needed?

After Sunday's Cup race, Hamlin expressed a desire to see NASCAR put their foot down or risk this becoming a more frequent occurrence.

"Yeah, certainly I think the sanctioning body needs to get involved a little bit and step in on egregious things," said Hamlin. "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. Those guys yesterday did it with 50 to go, absolutely just creaming each other. It was just horrible driving by most of the people out there. It's just not a good look.

Watch: Austin Hill makes inside maneuver, wins chaotic overtime Martinsville finish

"Certainly, you shouldn't be able to just wipe someone out egregiously like what happened at the end of the race yesterday. We have a black flag for a reason. I think we should start using it."

Avoidable contact

Hamlin indicated that it could be as simple as an avoidable contact penalty, which exists at short tracks around the country. When a driver is deemed at fault for an incident, they lose their track position and go to the rear of the field.

He expanded on this during his weekly podcast, Actions Detrimental, discussing the "total lack of respect" and "immaturity" from the NASCAR Xfinity field.

Harrison Burton, AM Racing Ford

Photo by: Logan Riely / Getty Images

"I'm tired of hearing these guys say, 'Well, they would have done it to me.' That doesn't fly anymore," said Hamlin. He specifically called out Sammy Smith, but also Austin Hill and Sam Mayer for some questionable moves during the race.

It's unclear if NASCAR will actually penalize Smith, but they did set a precedent last summer by penalizing Austin Dillon for a similar move at Richmond. The difference is that Dillon actually won the race. He got to keep the victory, but was removed from the playoffs. For Smith, he lost out as well in all this so if NASCAR wanted to send a message, a points penalty and/or fine is the most likely path they would take.