Devin Smith

Smith at Belltown Speedpark in 2021

### Achievements

Most wins in a season by a driver in Craftsman Series Modern Era (4)2021 Ajax Open Winner

## ASCA Ajax Cup Series Career

### Poles

2

**Devin Anthony Smith** (born July 29, 1999) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He currently competes full-time in the ASCA Ajax Cup Series, driving the No. 11 Toyota Camry for Michael White Racing and part time in the ASCA Craftsman Series, driving the No. 19 Toyota Camry for Michael White Racing. He won the 2020 Craftsman Series Rookie of the Year Award.

## **Early Racing Career**

Smith became interested in racing at the age of 12 after seeing an ASCA race on television, picking out CJ Barrymore as his favorite driver. He began racing on the racing simulator *YouRacing* a couple years later, scoring nearly 150 wins during his tenure on the site.

Smith began his offline racing career in 2016 after two years of saving money from his father to foot the bill for his equipment. Despite already being 17 years old at the time, Smith immediately began to turn heads racing late models at notable ASCA sanctioned tracks such as Belltown Speedpark and Computer Motor Speedway, winning 36 of the 38 races he entered that year.

In 2018, Smith was signed as a developmental prospect for the Ford Development Program. He would go onto win an additional 25 races that year, and 31 of the 33 races he entered in 2019 which included a 30 race winning streak.

## **ASCA National Series**

**Craftsman Series**

After the 2019 Nationwide 100 at the Michigan Road Course, the Ford Development Program announced that Smith would be promoted to the No. 6 full time in the 2020 Craftsman Series season, replacing future series champion Henry Brady.

Smith would make his Craftsman Series debut in 2019 in the Body Armor 125 at Advocare Speedpark, driving the No. 60 for the Ford Development Program. He would break the track record in qualifying, claim the pole position, and lead the opening 77 laps before being caught up in an accident and finishing 14th.

Smith would begin his full time campaign in 2020 with a 2nd place finish in the season opening NAPA Auto Parts 100 at Ajax Superspeedway, followed by a 3rd place finish in the Tudor's Buiscuit World 100 which gave him the points lead. However, he would be involved in some post race controversy at West Virginia after an incident during the event with Doug Bowden led Bowden to run Smith into the pit wall, get out of his car and grab Smith by the fire suit until he was restrained by his pit crew. Smith would respond the next week by scoring his first career win in just his fourth start, dominating the inaugural Disney World 125 at Blu-Ray Motor Speedway after leading 99 of 125 laps. The following week, Smith would find himself in more controversy after being involved in an incident with teammate Chris Barrymore with 7 laps to go in the Lilly Diabetes 100 at The Stoneyard. Trying to pass Barrymore heading into turn one, Smith overdrove the corner and punted Barrymore into the wall, effectively ending his race while Smith would go onto win his second race in a row. Smith would follow that up by winning the pole for the GameStop 100 at Belltown, leading the opening 48 laps and finishing 5th. A 13th place finish in the Pilot Flying J 100 plus a 6th place result in the inaugural Invesco 75 Lap Dash would result in Smith losing the points lead to Shane Park, something he would not regain the rest of the season. He would record his only DNF of the season the following week in the TreatMyPC.com 150 after a violent accident with Keon McDavid, finishing 20th. Smith would bounce back in the Tinder 125 though, stealing the lead from Nick Carey with two laps to go and scoring his third win of the season, the first Craftsman rookie to do so since Randle Woods. He would finish 3rd in the Axalta 100 after leading 37 laps, but another late race incident with Chris Barrymore with two laps to go resulted in him losing the lead. Despite that, Smith cut Shane Park's point lead down to six points after Park's first DNF of the season, but that would be short lived after he finished 7th in the Nationwide 100 at the Michigan Road Course while Park would go onto win. Smith would find victory lane for the fourth time that year in the rain shortened Body Armor 125 at Advocare Speedpark, but his 11th place result after his last lap crash in the CanAm 100 at Ajax Superspeedway ended Smith's realistic title hopes, and he'd close out the season with a 2nd place effort in the Geico 100 at Belltown, finishing 2nd in points.

Smith made a couple starts for Michael White Racing in the No. 19 during the 2021 season, with a best finish of 2nd.

**Ajax Cup Series**

On June 11th, 2020, Michael White Racing announced Smith would be the new replacement for Dan Rodgers in the No. 11 car in 2021, with FedEx retaining their season long primary sponsorship despite the driver change.

**2021**

Smith had a rocky first ASCA Speedweeks, wrecking out of every race he participated in that week which included a 23rd place finish in the season opening Ajax 200, his Cup debut. The struggles would continue for him with a 21st place effort in the Little General 200 after a lap 1 incident with Diego Orkedi, which had him dead last in points after two weeks. The following week would be the best of Smith's Cup career however, winning his first career pole for the Advocare 200, leading the opening 41 laps, and finishing 4th despite numerous run ins with Greg Healey throughout the night. He would back that up with another top 10 finish in the Arris 200, but would not score another one of those until the Northern 200 ironically also at The Stoneyard a few months later. At one point Smith had 4 DNF's in 8 races and many were starting to question whether or not he had been rushed to Cup after only one season of Craftsman experience, but 0 DNF's in the final 8 races plus 5 straight top 10 finishes to close out the year allowed Smith to end the year on a positive note.

Smith concluded the season with 2 top 5's and 7 top 10's, and finished 15th in the final standings.

## **In Popular Culture**

Smith was on the cover of both 2020 and 2021 preseason editions of *The Fallon Corner*.

## **Personal Life**

Smith was the youngest of three children, born in Livonia, Michigan and attended Walled Lake High School, graduating in 2017.

On July 30th, 2021, Smith was cited for reckless driving for doing 138 miles per hour in a 70 mile per hour zone on Interstate 275. He paid a $1,000 fine but eventually had the charge dropped from his record.