Mike Joy Offers Harsh Words for Xfinity Series After Chaotic Martinsville Finish

Mike Joy is the voice of NASCAR on Fox’s coverage for the Cup Series. He’s in his 25th season working with the network in that role.

On Sunday, the 75-year-old broadcaster worked alongside Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer up in the booth at Martinsville, covering a race that ended with Denny Hamlin leading the final 73 laps and taking the checkered flag with a four-plus second lead over the second-place finisher and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell.

That finish was quiet and dramatically different compared to the chaos fans witnessed less than 24 hours earlier at The Paper Clip during the Xfinity Series race. That’s when on the final lap Sammy Smith deliberately drove into the rear of Taylor Gray going into Turn 3 and sent the car up the track, where it went for a spin. That contact resulted in a bottleneck that produced a massive multi-car crash at the finish line.

During the Cup broadcast, Joy shared what he thought of all the Xfinity craziness after watching Erik Jones drive hard into the No. 16 Kaulig Racing car driven by AJ Allmendinger.

“In Turn 1 and Allmendinger repays the favor and it was more than bumper tag,” Joy said. “It sent him up a lane. Watch this. Looks a little like last night’s Xfinity Series dumpster fire.”

Ouch. But the broadcasting veteran wasn’t done. He had more harsh comments on the subject 75 laps later.

”Well, I’m sorry. I said the Xfinity series was a dumpster fire,” he said. “It’s not. A dumpster fire is contained and that series is not right now.”

Both series return to racing action next weekend at Darlington. The Xfinity coverage begins on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on The CW. On Sunday, Joy will be calling the Cup race with coverage beginning at 3 p.m. ET on FS1. 

Related: Mike Joy Calls Out Fox’s Production Team After Multiple Martinsville Mistakes

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