Kyle Petty proposes a bold alternative to NASCAR’s penalties amid Dale Jr.-owned JRM driver’s hefty sanction

NASCAR legend and seven-time Cup Series champion Richard Petty's son, Kyle Petty, was recently featured in an interview with NASCAR. He gave his bold take on the possible solution for the Martinsville Speedway event's aftermath. On Tuesday evening (April 1), NASCAR released its weekly penalty report and penalized multiple Xfinity Series drivers for aggressive driving.

The governing body penalized Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s co-owned team, JR Motorsports driver Sammy Smith for his last-minute maneuver. During the last lap of the race, Smith and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Taylor Gray had an intense battle for the win; the duo made contact, resulting in a multi-car pile-up. NASCAR issued a 50-point deduction for Smith alongside a hefty $25,000 fine.

However, former NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Petty proposed a different approach to avoid such scenarios. He claimed that deducting points and issuing fines would not "change" the situation and instead asked for the drivers to be suspended.

"Here's what NASCAR does: They put on their big boy pants, and they send these guys home. They make them set at home. Take something away. Don't take money. Don't take points. Take the opportunity to sit in that car and hang on to that steering wheel and race. Let them watch races and understand how it should be done," Kyle Petty said [01:06].

"Until NASCAR, until the sanctioning body is willing to step up and penalize the teams, the owners, the crew chiefs, and the drivers because of these cases, that's not going to change. When the sponsor sees that their drivers sitting at home, the sponsor is going to say, "Whoa, I don't want any part of this. Sorry about that. You should have thought about that before you wrecked somebody. You should have thought about losing that potential sponsor and losing that fan base. NASCAR has to step in," he concluded. [01:27]

The governing body also fined former NASCAR Cup Series driver Jeff Burton's nephew, Jeb Burton. NASCAR issued him a fine of $5,000 for behavioral issues at the infield care center.

---

“There was no reason for that”: Kyle Petty expressed his true feelings on NASCAR's controversial caution call

In February 2025, during the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, NASCAR veteran Kyle Petty highlighted the ideal time for issuing a yellow flag. During an interview with Performance Racing Network, Petty explained the reason for backing up his statement.

According to Petty, the last-minute caution in the race was not necessary. He pointed out that all the cars were close, and none was left behind in the field.

“They wrecked at the end of the backstretch, these guys are racing. They throw the caution in between three and four. They've still got time to take the flag and slow down and plenty of time. So there was no reason for a caution at that point in time because they were off the racetrack to the left, the pack had passed,” explained Kyle Petty [00:11].

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell won the event and crossed the finish line 0.015 seconds ahead of Carson Hocecar. Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson came in third, and Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney finished fourth.