Sammy Smith has joined Donnie Wilson and Wilson Motorsports for the 2021 season, starting at the World Series of Asphalt February 5-13. The Iowa teenager remains in the Rowdy Manufacturing pipeline for the new year after spending 2020 driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
His Super Late Model schedule will include another 10 to 12 races in the Wilson Motorsports stable once Speedweeks are over, which includes the biggest races in the country. Smith will also be paired up with veteran crew chief Bond Suss for the season.
He joins a team who had put three cars in the top six in December’s Snowball Derby with Chandler Smith, Kaden Honeycutt and Cole Butcher behind the wheel.
“They brought good cars to all the big races last year,” Smith told Speed51’s “The Bullring. “I’m looking forward to that and getting started at Speedweeks with a new team and a new crew chief.”
For the third straight year, Smith will compete at New Smyrna Speedway in the World Series, for his third different team in that span. He won the Pro Late Model points title with Anthony Campi Racing in 2019, then finished fourth in Super Late Model points last year with Kyle Busch Motorsports while winning the opening night feature.
He has come to enjoy running Speedweeks, thanks in part to the competitive edge that a driver can get for the rest of racing season.
“I think it’s good to go down and run Speedweeks to start the season. I ran it the last two years, it’s good to start the season out and work with a new team eight nights in a row. You can find your struggle points and fine-tune your strong points and where you need to improve. It’s always good to go down there and be successful.
“I really enjoy running Speedweeks. It gives you an opportunity to find a good short run car, maybe try to find some advantages for throughout the year. With the 50 and 100 lapper, you can take those short runs and put them together.”
Smith has won three races at the World Series in each of his two previous years at New Smyrna, two coming in the Pro and one in the Super. The biggest of which came in the 100-lap Pro Late Model race in 2019, helping him cap off the World Series championship.
With a new team in hand, he is looking forward to contending for more wins at the half-mile.
“I’m really excited to get down there and hopefully get a couple more wins. We started off strong last year winning night one, then we had our ups and downs throughout the week trying to find a balance in the car. It gets tough with all the rubbers that gets laid down and the track changes with that and weather.”
He seemed to be snakebitten with Kyle Busch Motorsports once the World Series concluded, having done everything but win in the No. 51. Smith had three second-place finishes while also finishing third in the Redbud 400. He also had strong runs in the Winchester 400, All American 400 and Pinty’s U.S. Short Track Nationals before incidents beyond his control derailed his chances at wins.
“I think we finished second four or five times throughout the year and we were strong at the big races like Nashville. At Winchester and Bristol, we had tires going down running second and then at Nashville, we had the belt come off running second. We had strong runs, but we also had our ups and downs.”
The move to Wilson Motorsports isn’t the only exciting development for Smith going on at this point. He teased another major announcement that could be coming soon.
“We have some exciting news coming down here in the next couple weeks. We can’t speak about it right now but we’ll have some exciting news. I’m really looking forward to that.”