RELATED: Smith, Dillon get physical post-race
Regan Smith shared his view of the post-race fracas with Ty Dillon at Watkins Glen International last week, and he made no apologies for his actions.
“I was pretty fired up after the race, and I feel like rightfully so,” Smith said on “JR Motorsports Up Front” on Dirty Mo Radio. “That’s the passion of our sport, that’s why we do it. We don’t do it because we go there to be all happy-go-lucky. We do it because we want to go out there and race hard and win. When you feel like you’ve been wronged, then sometimes you’ve got to handle it.”
Last Saturday following the Zippo 200, Smith stopped at competitor Ty Dillon’s car, leaned in and grabbed Dillon by the front of his uniform, confronting him about an incident between the two in Turn 1 on a Lap 40 restart. The two NASCAR XFINITY Series championship contenders pushed and shoved and shouted angrily at each other, promising retaliation down the road before NASCAR officials and various team members stepped in to separate them. Smith eventually was pulled away and made his way back to the garage area still fuming.
The JR Motorsports driver offered some insight into his history with Dillon and the on-track incident that sparked his ire.
”I think from my perspective I’ve been on the receiving end on more than one occasion from that car,” he said. “And that’s the frustrating part and that’s the part that really builds. I think this year for the most part we have done a good job of racing each other hard, racing each other clean and kind of had an understanding of how we were going to run each other. I didn’t take very nicely to the move that was made on Saturday.
“I feel like and I don’t mean to say this arrogantly, but there are certain guys in our series that are very good at braking and in braking zones … If you outbrake them, it probably means you have missed the corner, whether its a restart or whatever. For me to get in any deeper in that corner, I would have wadded the 22 (Brad Keselowski) up and wrecked him and the 33 (Paul Menard) likely. I don’t race that way. … On a road course, I feel like probably most of us, or the majority of the field has enough experience to understand that and realize that.”
RELATED: Dillon gets an interesting gift from Virginia Tech coach
The turn of events was even more frustrating for Smith because it was an example of yet another good run at a road course turned bad for circumstances out of his control.
“If you look back at my two-and-a-half-years here, we have run top five at every road course, and run strong enough to … potentially win all of them,” he said. “That’s the most frustrating for me. We’ve got nothing to show from any of them. And it’s not by our own hand of making mistakes on our own.
“It’s been of other things and other people just doing boneheaded stuff that makes absolutely no sense to you. We could be sitting here talking about almost 10 straight top fives on a road course instead of ‘Wow, Regan never finishes good at a road course.’ That’s not the case. We are always up there, in the hunt and maybe that, sometimes that can be the curse. A lot of times you look at the top fives when these races are over and its guys that didn’t run near the top five all day long and that’s just how these things shape out sometimes.”
Heading into Mid-Ohio for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital 200 (Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM) Smith is fourth in the points standings, 57 points behind championship leader Chris Buescher. Dillon is tied with Smith’s JRM teammate and defending series champion, Chase Elliott for second place in the standings. Smith says he thinks that circumstances will put he and Dillon together a bit this weekend.
RELATED: Latest series standings
”You can pretty much guarantee that we will qualify next to each other, ride on the same pack truck prior to the race. That’s how it works in NASCAR.”
And while Smith says he has not watched the incident, he is confident someone at JRM will make sure he sees it at some point.
“I haven’t watched it, nor will I,” Smith later jokingly added, “I’m sure I’ll be forced to watch it at the Christmas party or at some point. I know I am not going to be able to get away from it.”