Pit Stop Gamble, Late Caution Propels Sammy Smith into Xfinity Playoff Advancement
By David Morgan, Associate Editor
CONCORD, N.C. – Sammy Smith and the No. 8 team at JR Motorsports are moving on to the next round of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs, but the path to get there was anything but smooth.
After a mechanical issue to start the Round of 12 at Bristol, Smith has been climbing out of a hole ever since, finding himself 14 points in arears coming into Saturday’s Blue Cross NC 250 at Charlotte Motor Speedway to determine which drivers would be moving on to the next round with their championship hopes still intact.
Smith finished fourth in the first stage and second in the second stage, gaining ground in the points race, but was still behind as the laps wound down and the race went from late afternoon into early evening.
With four laps to go, Smith was running inside the top-10, but still found himself on the outside looking in as the first driver to be eliminated, some six points behind Taylor Gray for the final transfer spot.
The call then came down for Smith to hit pit road for fresh Goodyears and hope for a caution to be able to put those new tires to use.
Their prayers would be answered during the pit stop when Sage Karam crashed and brought out the yellow flag, re-racking the field and sending the race into overtime.
This changes everything!
The yellow comes out with @sammysmithSS already coming down pit road, saving the No. 8’s #NASCARPlayoffs hopes! pic.twitter.com/SdGkgrskF6
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) October 4, 2025
After a number of the leaders elected to pit under that yellow, Smith would restart in eighth, in a dead heat with his JR Motorsports teammate Carson Kvapil.
Taylor Gray was up 13 points over the JRM duo prior to the overtime restart.
By the time they reached the white flag, Smith was up to third and Gray had fallen to 13th place after the chaos of the restart the previous lap.
At that point, the two were separated by only a point, with the advantage going to Smith.
Halfway through the final lap, the caution flag would fly, freezing the field and ending the race. The scoring monitors showed Smith and Gray in a dead heat with a possible tiebreaker coming between the two
The minutes would click by with both drivers pacing nervously by their cars on pit road waiting on the final call from NASCAR. Eventually, that call came down – Smith was in, Gray was out by one point.
“It feels really good,” said Smith. “Obviously, it was a long shot coming into the day. We got lucky with that Hail Mary move Phil pulled and amazing call by him to do that. And yeah, just relieved because I felt like we are a Championship 4 caliber team and unfortunately what happened at Bristol took us out of it.
“So yeah, we’re just going to regroup and just try to do everything we can to go make the final four.”
Smith continued, recounting the rollercoaster of emotions between the final laps of the race, where the chances of advancing looked slim to the tense wait from the scoring tower to getting the final call that he’d made it in.
“It was from 10 to go thinking, ah, we’re not really going to make it in because we didn’t really have the speed to drive up and it didn’t look like he was going to lose enough positions.
“And yeah, Phil made a great call to pit and then obviously I had to make a lot of aggressive moves there and luckily, we were able to make it in. So yeah, just relieved and ready to move on to the next round.
“Just thank the good man above and obviously I feel like we had an unfortunate situation at Bristol and that put us in the position we are. So yeah, just very thankful.”
Smith will join all three of his JRM teammates in the next round as they all stay alive in the race to make it to Phoenix to challenge for the championship.
On the other side of the coin, Gray will have to wonder “What If?” after watching his chances to advance evaporate in the closing laps and into overtime, ending his first full-time season in the Xfinity Series on a sour note.
“Just obviously bummed out,” said Gray. “We don’t get to go racing for a championship at the end of the year.
“Just weren’t good enough. We weren’t good enough today. We didn’t have a good Bristol, and we shouldn’t have to even be in this spot. We are though, and we are going to take our loss, and move on to the next four and try to win us a couple of races.”
