The 2025 Pacific Automation 147 at Portland International Raceway delivered drama in spades. Rookie sensation Connor Zilisch, fresh off collarbone surgery, piloted his No. 88 Chevrolet from the pole through both stages with authority, only to face a barrage of chaos late in the race. Following an unexpected yellow that bunched up the field, he was forced through the penalty lane after contact, yet somehow emerged in front during overtime and clinched his eighth win of the season. Behind him, Nick Sanchez executed a masterclass march from the rear to snag a gritty third-place finish, while JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith, victim of on-track contact, was left floundering in 22nd.
Once the checkered flag waved, tempers flared as Smith, seething over being tagged entering Turn 1, confronted Sanchez on pit road. “Sammy Smith is furious at Jed Burton. “That douchebag has wrecked me three times.” Calls him a moron,” NASCAR reporter, Matt Weaver shared on X. The No. 8 team responded to his remarks and tried to soothe things over, saying, “We’ve talked about this before. We’ve just got to get back to work.” However, the tension didn’t translate into apologies, but rather into calling the other a ‘hypocrite.’
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
Nick Sanchez turns heat into identity
After the heated Xfinity Series race at Portland, Nick Sanchez didn’t mince words. “I think I started 8th on that restart, and I don’t know what everyone else was doing in the restart,” he said. “Somehow, I ended up fighting for the lead and won. And just tried to break late, locked at both fronts, and it seems like everyone kind of went a little deep and from my perspective I thought he tried to make turn 2 and tried to come back right and… I don’t think we were making turn 2, and I think I right reared him.” With Xfinity’s Pacific Office Automation 147 being just the fourth edition of the event, cars were stacked tightly heading into Turn 1. Recalling similar tight restarts earlier in the season at Atlanta, where Sanchez had just celebrated his first Xfinity win after a weather-delayed battle, underscored how circuit familiarity didn’t always promise order when the field converged.
“So, obviously unfortunate, but everyone’s playing bumper tag, and I’m not saying it gives me the right to do that, but if you’re not the aggressor, you’re probably going to get wrecked,” he further reflected. “I also can’t understand, people that could dish it out but they can’t take it right, and we know about that right, so I’m not here for hypocrites. I really don’t care.” It’s the kind of high-stakes pressure that fractals most clearly on Portland’s challenging layout often invite riders to test the limits. Moments like that echo back to Martinsville‘s US Marine Corps 250 in March, when Smith himself had sun a leader on the final lap, earning a fine and a points penalty, but still spouted aggression without humility. The wheel tapped, Smith spun, and Sanchez surged to a 3rd place finish.
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
“I try to race everyone clean, I dodged a wreck on the previous restart and lost a bunch of spots,” continued. “Four of them cleaned each other out in a 12, so at the end of the race, all bets are off. I hate to say it, turn one at Portland is… you’re asking for wrecks and I mean you just gotta be aggressive and, unfortunate that he got caught up in that… so you can’t really fault me for being aggressive and trying something right.” Their confrontation on pit road was caught on camera, with Smith looking furious, and Sanchez unmoved, a spectacle that laid bare the thin line between aggression and respect in Xfinity drama.
It isn’t the first time Sanchez has visibly pushed back. In 2023, during his Truck Series rookie season, he had a heated altercation after contact with veteran Matt Crafton, including harsh words and crew confrontation, showing his willingness to stand his ground. “This is racing and going for a gap, and it doesn’t always work out right,” he concluded. “Luckily I was able to finish. I think this is probably the first race I’ve finished in a while, so I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of other people’s mistakes recently, so it’s nice to be on the other end of it.” After times spent reeling from others’ errors, this was Sanchez’s return to control on the race conclusion.
In a season marked by fists, finishes, and fiery confrontations, Sanchez has made one thing clear: he is here to race, and he won’t back down.
NASCAR’s lost rule sparks Dale Jr.’s nostalgia
The Car of Tomorrow didn’t just change racing aerodynamics; it ushered in tandem drafting and a short-lived but unforgettable rule: driver-to-driver communication. Instead of only hearing the crew chiefs and spotters, drivers could jump on rival channels to talk smack, form alliances, or just laugh through the chaos. On his Dale Jr Download, the NASCAR Hall of Famer couldn’t help but miss it. “We wouldn’t be able to keep up with amount of entertaining sh-t we could put on the broadcast if the drivers talk back and forth,” he said. “It would just be chaos, it would be like, ‘Where do you turn?’ There would be so many conversations happening. Especially when something bad goes down, like the big wreck at Daytona on the front stretch.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
But unfiltered chatter brings its own chaos, but Dale Jr. already has a solution. “Well, they would be able to make the crew chief be the overriding dot. So any time the crew chief keyed up and talked or the spotter, it would override anything.” He even recalled his own setup, saying, “I had a harness in my car that would hook up to music. I could listen to music, sitting on pit road…You’d be in that line for 45 minutes…If Tony Jr had to say something or when I pull out on the track, they’d start talking and it’d override the music.”
Painting a lively picture of what could happen if the rule returned, Junior continued, “I think it would be cool to jump over on someone else’s radio and talk sh-t or high five them. They win the race, everybody’s jumping on their radio. It’d be like everybody talking over the top of each other. Congratulating that driver if they were very popular.” But he even admitted the novelty of the wear off. Whether it returns or not, Dale Jr.’s call proves that sometimes NASCAR’s most chaotic ideas are the ones fans miss the most.