Erik Jones spoke of his displeasure of the racing product in the NASCAR Xfinity Series a few weeks ago. He was very critical of how the races have been run by the current drivers after a wild race a couple of Sunday’s ago in Pocono.

“The Xfinity Series is in kind of a weird spot right now,” the fourth year Cup Series driver said. “You have a lot of young guys in there. Some very talented guys, don’t get me wrong. I really think some of the guys in there right now have a lot of talent, are very capable.

“Definitely some of the guys I think click it down a notch. I watch it on TV every week. It’s like, Man, some of those guys are so fast, some of the things they do sometimes, kind of blows your mind.

“The way I grew up racing, hooking somebody on the straightaway is pretty out there. I don’t think you’d want to face the repercussions of what would happen coming into the pits after you had to do something like that.

“Just kind of a lack of respect. Like I said, I grew up with a lot of respect in racing, respect for my equipment, my competitors. I don’t like to tear up equipment. I don’t really believe in intentionally wrecking people. I think that’s pretty low. I think that’s just low class, doesn’t really belong in our sport. That’s Saturday night short track Mickey Mouse stuff. It’s not how it should be. I just don’t like to see it.

“It bums me out to see that in racing. Hopefully they all kind of learn from that. NASCAR is going to talk with those guys and tell them that’s not going to fly here.”

• 

Well, that aggression has now carried over. The cup overflowed Friday night at the Kentucky Speedway.

Noah Gragson made an aggressive move on the final restart in the closing laps of Friday’s Alsco 300. He got loose under Harrison Burton and skated the two up the banking and into the Turn 4 SAFER barrier as a result.

The two then got into a physical altercation in the garage post race over it where punches were thrown.

Burton, says he had enough of being a punching bag from Gragson. He said the two had an incident at Charlotte too. Gragson, also had incidents with Myatt Snider in Vegas and Pocono too.

Justin Haley hooked Riley Herbst in Pocono as well. Add to the fact that Ross Chastain always drives aggressive and you get a ton of hurt feelings at the end of these races.

All this aggressive driving stems from four factors in my mind.

First, these guys are young. Gragson is 21. Burton 19. Chastain and Briscoe are old timers at 27 and 25 years of age respectively.

Austin Cindric, Riley Herbst and Justin Haley are 21 each. Brandon Jones is 23.

Age is a factor. So is inexperience. Most of these guys have less than three years experience in the series. Some have been in NASCAR in general less than five years total.

Then, factor in some of these tracks are tough to pass on and you have to be aggressive to make moves, and you get a perfect storm.

Gragson’s move to me on Friday night was innocent. He had to go for it. What’s he supposed to do? Is he supposed to just ride behind Burton? It’s racing. Not a parade.

The biggest reason of all is most of these guys are free agents and in top rides. They know it’s perform or your rise to stardom is done.

NASCAR is a cut throat business. You don’t get many second chances. There’s always someone younger with money coming up through the ranks. If you can’t win in a top car early, you’ll be gone sooner than later.

Briscoe, Haley, Gragson and others are free agents at seasons end. There’s a lot of Cup rides opening but a crowded room of talented free agents too. It doesn’t make much sense to return to NXS again in 2021.

Combine all of this, and you get a volatile atmosphere in the series and it’s only going to get more and more volatile as the season goes on.