NASCAR O'Reilly

BUSCH: Smith Preseason Thunder media visit

Regan Smith, new to Team Rensi in 2006, and Jon Wood, entering his second year with JTG Racing, took part in an afternoon Q & A session in the Daytona International Speedway infield media center during the second day of Busch Series testing. Both ...

Edited: Apr 16, 2008, 12:40 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Regan Smith, new to Team Rensi in 2006, and Jon Wood, entering his second year with JTG Racing, took part in an afternoon Q & A session in the Daytona International Speedway infield media center during the second day of Busch Series testing. Both drivers shared their thoughts on the first two days of testing and the upcoming season.

REGAN SMITH-35-McDonald's Ford Fusion - TALK ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY YOU HAVE WITH TEAM RENSI DRIVING THE NO. 35 FORD. "I think, for me, coming from the past four years bouncing around from seat to seat, this is definitely the best opportunity that I've ever had to get in a car for a full season, get some chemistry with all of my guys, and go out and compete for wins hopefully by the end of the year."

COMMENT ON THE TEST SESSION TO DATE. "The test so far, we're working hard right now. We're struggling a little bit, but we've got some ideas of what we can do to fix our cars, and we'll just keep going at it and try to get these things better. I'm just real happy to be associated with Team Rensi, McDonald's and all of the people over there."

WITH AS MANY AS EIGHT DRIVERS RUNNING FULL SEASONS IN CUP AND BUSCH, CAN YOU SPEAK ON THE CHALLENGE IT PRESENTS, THE SATISFACTION YOU GET FROM BEATING THOSE GUYS AND WHAT IT WILL MEAN TO YOUR 2006 SEASON? "I kind of agree with Jon (Wood), to have those guys out there, if you're going to eventually get to that level you've got to be racing those guys and beating those guys and competing with them to gain their respect. From the opposite side of Johnny (Sauter), I can look at it from the outside because we don't have any Cup affiliation, and the same as Jon, they've got the affiliation with the Wood Brothers. With Team Rensi being two Busch teams without any affiliation, it's tough and we've got to rely on whatever information is within our shop and within our people that we either hire or that we already know and have learned from past experience."

DID YOU EXPECT TO EVER DRIVE AT THIS LEVEL, AND WAS THERE A SPECIFIC POINT IN YOUR CAREER THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING AND MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR YOU? "I think for me it was from the time I was six or seven years old, my goal to get to NASCAR and get to the Nextel Series eventually. You just keep working hard to get to that point. I was fortunate enough to where I was in a Pro Cup car by the time I was 16. It was a family-owned team, but then when you take the step to the next level, it gets a little bit more expensive and they can't always help you out there."

-ford racing-

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article BUSCH: Kluever continues road course practice

Next article BUSCH: Daytona Preseason Thunder, day 12 report

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Homestead NASCAR Viewer's Guide: Everything you need to know for the season finale

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

5 min

Homestead NASCAR Viewer's Guide: Everything you need to know for the season finale

Mercedes fined for George Russell skipping F1 Mexico GP media duties

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

44 min

Mercedes fined for George Russell skipping F1 Mexico GP media duties

Lewis Hamilton slams Charles Leclerc for "do or die" attitude after Mexico GP clash

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

1 h

Lewis Hamilton slams Charles Leclerc for "do or die" attitude after Mexico GP clash

Jeff Burton and Dale Jarrett blast Carson Hocevar: "That's not racing"

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Martinsville II

2 h

Jeff Burton and Dale Jarrett blast Carson Hocevar: "That's not racing"

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts