Smith in the #81 failed to make it through to the Championship 4 race after finishing third behind the race-winning #20 of Aric Almirola and the #8 of Sammy Smith.
The decisive moment in the race came on the penultimate restart with 24 laps to go. The #81 lined up on the outside of the front row with the #00 of Custer immediately behind him.
Custer ran into the back of Smith and ran up him the track into Turn 1 before the caution came out again for an incident involving Shane van Gisbergen and Ryan Sieg.
Smith fell back to fifth and Custer to sixth.
By the end of the race, Smith found himself in a must-win position and ultimately couldn’t get to the head of the field.
Post-race, Smith confronted Custer at the door of the #00 before throwing a single punch after a heated exchange.
“Obviously, he’s not happy,” said Custer.
“At the end of the day, he’s put us in the wall a few times this year and his mistakes caught up with him.
“He used the bumper on me, I used the bumper on him. What comes around goes around in this deal.
“He put us in the wall a few times this year, he kept us from winning a race I feel like at Kansas, and he used the bumper on me, I used the bumper on him.
“I don’t really know how we’re not even. Then he punched me in the race. I can’t even tell if he really even punched me in the face it was so soft. At the end of the day, we’ll go on to Phoenix.”
Tempers flare on pit road after the race! #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/Iiss8Et2VI
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) November 2, 2024
Smith said he had planned to do “a lot more” to Custer before the altercation was stopped.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver intimated Custer moved him out of the way intentionally at the first turn.
“I was extremely pissed off,” said Smith.
“I gave him five laps before that caution came out and beat his bumper off. I never shipped him or anything like that, then finally it was like, all right, the laps are winding down, I’m in a must-win. The #20 is starting to drive away and he was really good all day, I can’t waste any more time with him.
“So I finally had a good enough run and pushed him up the race track and went on our way. But I gave him a chance for five laps before that, right? I think he was the first guy all day that chose the outside lane from third place, so that’s very interesting, and then he didn’t even give me a chance to make the corner when we got to Turn 1. And funnily enough, the restart right after that, right behind me again, how ironic is that? It is what it is.”
A heated exchange at @MartinsvilleSwy. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/fYNaHDeIRh
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) November 2, 2024
When asked about the incident earlier in the year at Kansas Motor Speedway where Smith took Custer out in a clumsy crash, the #81 driver said there was no way the #00 would have won.
“I think he’s full of shit if he doesn’t think the #20 is going to blow his doors off after five laps in that race, honestly,” said Smith.
“Go back and look, the #20 was the best car for that entire race. He was even better than me, better than the #00.
“I didn’t even know what he was mad about at Kansas until I went back and talked to him. I was like, ‘What were you mad about?’ and seeing what happened, I was like ‘Okay, that’s my bad’.
“You can go back and listen to the spotter’s footage, he said ‘clear’, never knew you were on the outside, it’s on me.
“And his thing was you have a mirror and all that. He can think we’re even but he’s got more stakes than I do next weekend.”
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will conclude on November 10 at Phoenix Raceway.
The championship will be fought between Austin Hill, AJ Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier, and Custer.
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