JR Motorsports driver says he regrets never qualifying for last season's contest
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NEWTON, Iowa -- Ten months later, Regan Smith can talk about it with a smile.
But there certainly was no grinning after last year's NASCAR Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, when Smith turned Elliott Sadler during the final green-white-checkered restart. The two later exchanged heated words in the garage, punctuated with Sadler jabbing his finger into Smith's face and declaring "You will not win this championship, mark my words."
It was a rare burst of anger from one of the calmer drivers on the circuit, directed at not only a driver with whom Sadler had never had an issue, but was the series points leader at the time.
At Iowa Speedway on Saturday morning following an announcement for this year's Dash 4 Cash race lineup, Smith used that example to illustrate how intense the racing can get during the sweepstakes.
"I think we saw last year there's a lot of passion in this, not only qualifying for the races but as well as potentially winning the Dash 4 Cash races and being the highest finisher as a Nationwide Series regular -- I think New Hampshire was a prime example of that last year," Smith said. "Myself and Elliott decided to discuss that after the event. It brings out the best in everybody. I don't think that will be any different this year. I think you're going to see a lot of passion coming out."
Although he's got Sunday's Get to Know Newton 250 presented by Sherwin-Williams to get through first -- not to mention the five races that follow Iowa -- Smith said the Dash 4 Cash schedule is already on his team's radar.
The 30-year-old went out of his way to point out that not qualifying to be eligible for the $100,000 bonus in any of last year's four races still perturbs him. And it was during that promotion last year that Smith's hold on the series points lead went from ironclad to non-existent following his summer swoon.
Smith went into the 2013 D4C qualifying race at Kentucky with a 28-point lead. Five races later, once the D4C event had ended, he was second to Austin Dillon and never led the points standings again that year.
Entering Sunday's race, Smith is third in the standings, three points behind leader and JR Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott and two points behind second-place Sadler. He won the season-opening race at Daytona and has nine top-10s in nine races.
Smith has put himself in good points position just as the stand-alone season begins and the D4C stretch looms. This time, he intends on staying there.
"The four Dash 4 Cash races were like our Achilles' heel last year," Smith said. "That's something we've highlighted. That particular stretch in the schedule was really difficult on our team.
"So yeah, it bothered me not being (in the mix) last year. We'll look forward to having a fan sitting on our pit box and cheering us on this year at the final race."
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