(Photo: Cole Penning | The Podium Finish)
Sammy Smith’s mindset entering the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs is eyes forward and to forget the last two months.
Over the last seven races, Smith, a 19-year-old from Johnston, Iowa, has averaged a finish of 26.9 since he finished sixth at Pocono Raceway in July. He’s tabbed results better than 20th just twice in that span, mainly a product of races where he’s gotten caught up in wrecks.
Smith attributes the recent stretch as “wrong place, wrong time,” but refused to call it bad luck, either. That included the regular-season finale at Kansas Speedway, where he crashed out after contact from Sheldon Creed.
“I feel like we’ve been in good positions where we were running and got wrecked,” Smith said during Xfinity Series Playoff Media Day on Tuesday. “I think we have had a lot of speed and brought speed to the track every week. I just think it’s been a rough couple of weeks to where we’ve had speed, and running up front and we just get taken out.
“I don’t believe in luck, I don’t believe in any of that stuff, so I don’t know what to call it, but we have just kind of have to reset – like we did – we had a good solid reset in Kansas. We were really fast there. We had a good practice, good qualifying, good first two stages, just got taken out there with nothing I could do about it. I think just try to reset and have a strong mental side of things and try to go into the Playoffs with a good mindset.”
Smith ended up finishing the regular season 12th in overall points but punched his ticket into playoffs back in March when he won at Phoenix Raceway. In total, he has four top fives and 10 top 10s with an average finish of 17.2, 0.4 spots better than his nine races last year. A short-track racer at heart, some of Smith’s best finishes this season have come at Martinsville Speedway (2nd), Dover Motor Speedway (6th) and New Hampshire Motor Speedway (5th).
Admittedly, Smith has struggled with the transition to larger tracks. Outside of his limited Xfinity starts last season, Smith made just three ARCA Menards Series starts on intermediate-style tracks before his progression to full-time in 2023.
(Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
“I never really ran any races in ARCA on mile-and-a-halves or intermediates, so I think that was the biggest thing for me was going from short tracks to intermediates in an Xfinity car,” Smith said. “A lot of guys do ARCA and have that experience or do Trucks, so it’s been a challenge that way – just the jump – I feel really comfortable. The more experience is better for me, so I think we continue to do that.
“There’s been some learning curves of making mistakes on those tracks. I think you learn a lot more from making mistakes — at least I do — of not doing those mistakes again and just trying to be … whenever you get back on those types of tracks after you make a mistake, it’s a lot easier than just trying to just go to a track [on the simulator] and just try and figure it out.”
The playoffs include three intermediate tracks (Texas, Las Vegas and Homestead-Miami), potentially complicating Smith’s journey to the championship. But knowing that Phoenix serves as the final race and that the Joe Gibbs Racing cars have speed gives him confidence heading into the playoffs.
“I think we have the capability to be running up there with Austin Hill, John Hunter (Nemechek) and Justin Allgaier. I think those are the guys that I can see making the final four,” Smith said. “I think we are right there with them. I feel that way about me and my team. I don’t know how everyone else feels. We just have to go out there and prove it to everyone else and prove it to ourselves that we can do it.
“I think we’ve shown some speed everywhere. We just have to get the Playoffs started right and get the stuff turned around that’s not going right.”
Ahead of the playoff opener at Bristol Motor Speedway, Smith is gridded ninth in the standings, two points below the cutline. The Food City 300 is set for Friday, Sept. 15 at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
