Overlooked in the allure of the inaugural Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Late Model Stock race was RD Smith’s seventh place finish in his first race ever at Southern National Motorsports Park.
Smith, 35, is one of those smooth, consistent and often underrated drivers in Late Model Stock Car racing. At any given time, Smith could show up to a different track and flip the script by putting himself in victory lane. In the past, he has spent most of his time racing at Ace Speedway but this year, he finds himself running the CARS Tour.
Smith’s seventh place finish at Southern National was completely overlooked but, with that said, Smith felt he could have and should have scored an even better result. Now, he’s hoping to do just that and deliver a podium finish in the Orange Blossom 300 at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, North Carolina on Saturday night.
“I think we had a lot better car than we showed,” Smith said. “We had a tire going down pretty much. That hindered us quite a bit during the race. I feel good about it. I don’t have much experience at Orange County at all. I have a great race team and looking forward to going. That was the first trip I’ve ever made to Southern National. Driving for those guys at David Gilliland Racing and Todd was able to win so I feel confident. We have a strong team. I think we’ll run better than we did at Southern National. I’m shooting for a top-five, hopefully. A top-three would be a strong run.”
Because this will be his first race at Orange County Speedway, Smith will be relying heavily on practice time he gets this week leading up to Saturday night’s race. However, he feels Orange County will be more of a level playing field because the track has not often featured
“I feel like we’ve got good enough equipment,” Smith commented. “We’ll test on Friday, don’t have much to go off of. There are not many guys who have been running Orange whereas a lot of guys had home court advantage at Southern National. Orange hasn’t been on everybody’s radar like Southern National has been so it’s a lot more level playing field. Especially for me since I don’t have much experience at either one of them.”
While having track time is certainly an advantage to a handful of drivers that are regulars at some of the venues in the CARS Tour, Smith feels the bump-stops and the American Racer tires are an equalizer of sorts.
“It definitely doesn’t hinder you,” Smith explained. “If you’ve had great success at these tracks like Deac [McCaskill] or Jamey [Caudill], you’re almost married to your baseline setup that’s worked for so many years. The new setup package is definitely takes away a lot of the advantage guys would have at their home track. They still know the track way better but it evens the playing field. Everybody’s on a new setup more or less. Not that it helps, but it doesn’t hinder you as much if it wasn’t for the different setup package.”
After Orange County, the tour will head west to Newton, North Carolina for the first of two races at the legendary Hickory Motor Speedway. Smith raced in Hickory’s opener earlier this year and had immediate success. Smith spun early off the front bumper of Annabeth Barnes but quickly recovered and raced from worst to first and crossed the finish line as the winner only to be stripped of his win in the tech shed because his shocks did not rebound in 90 second or less.
“I went there this year to get experience for Hickory,” Smith remarked. “Got one race under our belts there and that’s why we went for that reason. We spun and came from dead last to win that race. That was my first trip to Hickory too. We’re hitting quite a few of these tracks for the first time but it hasn’t seemed to hinder us. We’re able to pick up on them pretty fast.”
Success at Hickory Motor Speedway is important because that is the venue that will host the championship race for the CARS Tour. Smith hopes he can remain in contention and be a factor for the championship on November 1st. He said he’s focused on scoring strong finishes because one bad race could end any championship hopes any driver has.
“I feel like we can be a threat to win the championship, I do,” Smith stated. “We’ll be right there. The short schedule, being only 10 races, you’re not going to have any chances for a mulligan, can’t have any major problems. You need to be in the top-10 every week to win this championship in this CARS Tour and that’s saying a lot with that competition.”
The Orange Blossom 300 at Orange County Speedway will be held on Saturday, April 18th. RACE22.com will have up to the minute coverage on our website and on Twitter. Along with RACE22.com’s digital coverage, RACEFEEDX.com will have live, streaming video coverage of the race.
