Nemechek wins and catches on fire, Mayer flips the bird at Xfinity race in Martinsville

John Hunter Nemechek set Martinsville ablaze on Saturday.

Literally.

He caught fire a bit himself, too.

The driver of the No. 20 car thoroughly dominated the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway, sweeping all three stages and rising above the rubble that followed the race’s nine cautions.

But when he began to celebrate near the start-finish line of the racetrack, his car caught on fire — and that fire spread onto the track and filled the infield with an unexpected kind of smoke.

It was about the only bit of drama Nemechek, who led 198 of the race’s 250 laps, encountered on Saturday.

“I saw that there was a fire in the mirrors, which I didn’t know if the ground was on fire from the rubber, or if it was the mud flaps, or what exactly was on fire,” Nemechek said in the media center after his win. “So I figured trying to drive away from it first might be better for getting out of that situation. But then it continued on. Then I got told to back up because there were fire extinguishers on the way, and backed up, and then I got out.”

He added: “I wasn’t too nervous about it. ... Definitely a proud moment to go out there and burn it down like we did.”

Sammy Smith finished second. Cole Custer finished third.

Plenty of excitement — not involving the leader — roared proudly in this one. Among the highlights:

▪ With 29 laps to go, Ryan Truex got underneath Sam Mayer on a turn, and Mayer spun out and knocked into Riley Herbst. That ended the days for Mayer and Herbst. Before heading back to his hauler, though, Mayer waited on pit road and gave the middle finger to the No. 19 car (Truex) as he passed by in frustration.

“I can’t say anything bad about (Joe Gibbs Racing) drivers,” Mayer said when he emerged from the care center at the Martinsville Speedway infield. “So I’ll just keep it to myself. Martinsville is (finished), moving on, ready to go.”

This isn’t the first bit of chaos Mayer has gotten into at Martinsville. Mayer and Ty Gibbs got into a fist fight after the April 2022 race at this Virginia racetrack after the two made contact off of Turn 4 in double overtime.

▪ Josh Berry had an awesome day, finishing fourth, rising through the field in Stage 3 with relative ease. He was driving so well that he let shine some bravado late in the race in a message to his team over the radio: “I’m a (expletive) animal, aren’t I?!”

Here’s Berry on that comment post-race: ”I would say I was in a good place today, I guess. I seem to run my best races when we cut up like that on the radio. But man, that was fun coming up the field like that. Our car was so good, we could just turn underneath of them on the corner and get up beside them. ... Just really proud of this whole 8 team.”

Berry has been praised for weeks for how he ran the No. 9 Cup car for Hendrick Motorsports while Chase Elliott continued his recovery from injury. Elliott will return to the Cup field on Sunday.

See full results below.

Unofficial results from Xfinity race at Martinsville

This story was originally published April 15, 2023 at 10:45 PM.

Alex Zietlow

The Charlotte Observer

Alex Zietlow writes about the Carolina Panthers and the ways in which sports intersect with life for The Charlotte Observer, where he has been a reporter since August 2022. Zietlow’s work has been honored by the Pro Football Writers Association, the N.C. and S.C. Press Associations, as well as the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) group. He’s earned six APSE Top 10 distinctions for his coverage on a variety of topics, from billion-dollar stadium renovations to the small moments of triumph that helped a Panthers kicker defy the steepest odds in sports. Zietlow previously wrote for The Herald in Rock Hill (S.C.) from 2019-22. Support my work with a digital subscription