RELATED: See how Smith won at Mid-Ohio
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — Regan Smith used a bit of bumper two weeks ago to become NASCAR’s most recent road-course winner, shoving road-racing veteran Alex Tagliani in the last lap at Mid-Ohio to take his first XFINITY Series victory of the year.
With the final road-course race of the season looming at Road America, Smith said he doesn’t have regrets about the late-race contact, which left Tagliani steaming with cross post-race words.
“I think if you’re in that same situation, you’ve got to do what you can do to go for wins,” Smith said before opening XFINITY practice Friday at the 4.048-mile circuit. “I guess in that circumstance in that situation, I didn’t wreck him, just had a little bumper tag there and we came out as the beneficiary of it. I have not spoken to Alex and didn’t really figure he’d be in the mood right after the race to talk at all, so I think possibly down the road, we will. He’s somebody that I’ve raced with a few times now and enjoy racing with him. I think he would understand the scenario of going for wins and doing what we’ve got to do there.
“It’s a fine line. There’s wrecking a guy and there’s moving him and getting the position. We see the moving all the time. It’s not anything new. It’s been done in our sport for a thousand times and a thousand more times in the future, I’m sure. The feedback I got from drivers, crew members, you name it, they thought it was a good move and they thought it was fine. I didn’t really hear too much negative about it.”
Smith’s victory helped bolster the JR Motorsports driver’s case for a series championship. Though he ranks fourth — 51 points behind series leader Chris Buescher — he noted that plenty can change with 11 races remaining on the calendar.
“I think we’re still in it,” Smith said. “We’re racing like we’re still in it, and the mindset is to go out and do everything we can to lead laps and win races. And if you’re doing that, you close up on points even quicker than you can imagine.”
While the title fight for this season has ramped up, Smith has also kept a focus on making his 2016 plans final. His recent remarks about his potential free-agent status have sparked interest into what next season might hold, plus in which series he’ll be competing.
Smith reiterated his goal of returning to the Sprint Cup Series, where he’s performed admirably in fill-in roles the last two seasons — including three races this year in place of the suspended Kurt Busch and one race after Kyle Larson‘s fainting spell on the eve of the first Martinsville race of 2015.
“Working hard every day to figure out 2016,” Smith said. “I think I’ve been clear for the better part of two and a half years now that I want to get back to Sprint Cup and do that at some point, so I’m fortunate to be in fast race race cars at JR Motorsports right now and have an amazing opportunity here and definitely don’t take that for granted. At the same time, I want to give myself that opportunity to get back to the other series. As soon as all that stuff plays out and I have answers, then I’ll given them as soon as I can.”