Driver eager for wild, unpredictable Talladega
RELATED: Series standings
Though the NASCAR XFINITY Series season is still in the developmental stages, Regan Smith has already endured a pair of slight setbacks that have stunted his progress in the standings. With each hindrance, though, his JR Motorsports No. 7 team has rebounded in a big way.
Smith’s next chance at sustaining momentum comes at Talladega Superspeedway in Saturday’s Winn-Dixie 300 (3 p.m. ET, FOX), the ninth of 33 races this season for the XFINITY tour. Smith already has one Talladega victory in the series, using a slashing move on the final lap to bring home the checkered flag in May 2013.
Smith’s first restrictor-plate race of the season had a topsy-turvy, abbreviated end when his No. 7 Chevrolet flipped 27 laps from the finish. But the 31-year-old driver recovered with a tidy string of five consecutive top-five finishes to rally to fifth place in the XFINITY standings.
Smith’s streak ended with mechanical trouble and a 30th-place result at Bristol Motor Speedway two weeks ago, dropping him two spots in the points pecking order. But Smith said he didn’t feel any extra pressure last weekend at Richmond with unpredictability looming this week at Talladega.
“It’s too early to panic,” Smith said after claiming a third-place finish at Richmond to move back to fifth in the standings. “Our race cars are fast. Last year, we were struggling to find the speed and the feel I wanted. Had this been last year, I’d have been a little bit of panic mode, but I’m not anywhere near that right now.
“We’ve got ‘Dega coming up, we’ve got a lot of wild-cards that are places that I’m comfortable on. Anything can happen at any of those. So we’re just going to race, do our jobs and see what happens.”
Smith was the top-finishing XFINITY Series regular at Richmond last Friday, a night of domination for Sprint Cup moonlighter Denny Hamlin. The third-place result matched the high-water mark from earlier this season at Las Vegas, helping the bond with new crew chief Jason Burdett continue to grow.
Ty Dillon, in his second full XFINITY season, still leads the way — a perch he’s held since Atlanta Motor Speedway, site of the second race of the season. Smith faces a 41-point gap to the top, but more efforts like Friday night’s at Richmond would help the cause.
“We’ll take third and keep chipping away at our points deficit that we’ve got to work out of the hole,” Smith said. “Pretty happy with that.”