The penultimate race of the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series at Martinsville Speedway was rife with controversy. An implosion ensued at Richard Childress Racing on the final lap as Sheldon Creed, ruining Austin Hill’s championship chance. An incident between John Hunter Nemechek and one of his teammates takes away the entire focus from Joe Gibbs‘ debacle.

JGR and RCR are two of the biggest teams in NASCAR today and often deal with controversy. On the last lap, Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed were racing for the win. Hill was already in the top 4, but Creed aggressively went for the win and took out his teammate. But the latter could not cross the checkered flag first, as Justin Allgaier outshined and finished P1.

What did John Hunter Nemechek do to make it to Phoenix?

Richard Childress is left with zero drivers in the championship race. Whereas Austin Hill had the potential and was in the top four, had it not been for Sheldon Creed On the other hand, Sammy Smith started the race in pole position and was looking good on the track. It was the 19-year-old’s maiden pole position in the Xfinity Series, and he led his career-most laps in the competition as well. The Joe Gibbs Racing star was one of the drivers in the last eight, and he had a golden chance of winning the race and making it into the final four.

However, on the last restart, the driver of the #18 was blocked by teammate and title favorite John Hunter Nemechek, ultimately proving to be costly as Sammy Smith was only able to finish in P3. The 19-year-old was not appreciative of his teammate’s actions and said outright that John Hunter Nemechek would be on his own in Phoenix. It is indeed frustrating for Smith, who arguably ran his best Xfinity Series race until that point.

“Yeah move on to Phoenix, he’s gotta race for the championship and I don’t so, we’ll so how that goes,” Sammy Smith said when asked about Nemechek’s block. “Yeah, he definitely doesn’t have a teammate on next Saturday at all.”

John Hunter Nemechek was not a confirmed entry in the championship race ahead of the Martinsville weekend. At the end of the day, the JGR driver managed to get into the last four. However, he had a heart-in-mouth moment on the last lap when the Sheldon Creed-Austin Hill drama unfolded.

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At that point, John Hunter Nemechek was a fair distance behind the RCR drivers. As the two collided, a massive pile-up ensued, which caught up a lot of drivers. The 26-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing star revealed that he didn’t have a clear idea about what was happening but was thankful that he made it to Phoenix.

“A bunch of carnage. Guess that’s Martinsville. I know the 21 turned down on the 2 getting into three, and it was on from there. I really don’t know what happened. All I know is I hit the wall with the right front tire, and then there was a bunch of carnage on the front straightaway and caught on fire. Last time we were on fire here, we were on Victory Lane. Wish we were in victory lane but all that matters is we advanced and are headed to run for the championship in Phoenix,” Nemechek said, as per Speedway Digest.

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Despite finishing P18, the 26-year-old made it through thanks to his points tally. Phoenix will not be an easy race for the JGR star, whose teammate seems to have turned against him. Will John Hunter Nemechek win the Xfinity Series title? Let us know what you think.