With 2015 plans set, Smith eyeing 2014 title

The one-year extension means that Smith will return to the JRM fold for a third straight season. He wound up third in the series standings last year and ranks second this season, 26 points behind rookie teammate Chase Elliott with five races remaining.

Smith contributed a victory in the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway in what's been a banner year for JR Motorsports. The team has posted nine wins among four drivers, with Kevin Harvick (4), Elliott (3) and Kasey Kahne (1) adding the others. But the biggest change hasn't necessarily been the increase in Victory Lane visits.

"I think we've had a lot more consistency in drivers every week in the cars, with myself running the whole year, with Chase running the whole year, Harvick's run the majority of races on the No. 5 car -- it just seems like we've had that consistent feel to it," Smith said. "As a whole, I feel like we've taken another step forward from last year even as a company."

The growth manifested itself with the team's first-ever four-car effort back in April at Texas Motor Speedway, where Elliott passed Harvick for his first career Nationwide victory. Since then, Smith and Elliott haven't fallen out of the top three in the season-long standings.

The success has been fun to watch for Earnhardt, who not only welcomed the continuity for 2015 but suggested that he might take more of an active role behind the wheel for JRM later in his career.

"I am really happy that we are basically going to have a carbon copy of what we did this year next season," Earnhardt said. "We have had a lot of success and I think we can build on that and everything is going to stay in place and we are going to go on down the road. On down the road is just 12 months. When you talk about the Cup Series you look a little further. I would like to race for that company one day, so I hope to keep it healthy until that opportunity presents itself -- whenever I'm done Cup racing to jump in a Nationwide car and do that for a couple of years in my own shop."

For Smith, the short-term goal is chopping into his rookie teammate's points lead and putting his No. 7 Chevrolet in position for a title. The ultimate goal is a return to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, which he called home for almost every race from 2008-12 and where he scored his biggest win -- a triumph in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in 2011.

While some loose ends still remain untied among the "silly season" moves and Sprint Cup vacancies for next year, Smith felt the time was right to sign the dotted line.

"I definitely want to get back to Cup. I don't know that I've ever denied that or said that I don't," Smith said. "That's the goal and I've proved that I belong there and get to race on Sundays and run the longer races again. Naturally, there are some openings on paper that appear on that side. I think a lot of things still have play out on the Cup side -- a lot of things look like they're still taking place over there and there's some quality race teams still trying to figure out what they're doing. At the time, I felt like it was time to go ahead and start trying to solidify some things for next year and know generally speaking where I'm going to be."

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