After finishing fifth-place in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series BetMGM 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Sammy Smith has been disqualified for failing to meet the minimum weight requirement in post-race inspection.
The driver of the No. 8 Pilot Chevrolet for JR Motorsports has been demoted to a 38th-place finish on the afternoon at Charlotte, which will bump up several drivers within the running order.
William Byron, after successfully passing post-race inspection, remains the race-winner, with Connor Zilisch, Nick Sanchez, and Justin Allgaier maintaining their finishes of second, third, and fourth.
However, Dean Thompson, driver of the No. 26 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota GR Supra for Sam Hunt Racing is promoted to fifth-place. It’s the first-ever top-five result in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for the Anaheim, California-native.
Josh Williams was promoted to a sixth-place finish at Charlotte, matching his best-ever result in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Williams earned his sixth-place result at Kansas Speedway in the Fall of 2020.
Prior to the inspection failure by Sammy Smith, Williams had clinched his third seventh-place finish with Kaulig Racing, the best result that the 31-year-old driver had collected with the race-winning organization.
Austin Hill will be awarded a seventh-place result, with Ryan Ellis’ career-best finish of ninth-place, being bumped up one spot further to eighth. Christian Eckes and Sheldon Creed round out the top-10.
The disqualification of Sammy Smith drops the driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet to 13th in the NASCAR Xfinity Series point standings. However, with a victory in the bank (ironically, the result of another disqualification), the points position will not impact his post-season eligibility.
2 Responses
How light was he ?
Bound to be some kind of penalty if you drive for HendrickMotorSports or JRMotorspots. It’s always something. Speeding on pit road they use the most or weight after a race. Two things very easy to manipulate.