Garrett Smithley

Smithley's plans for 2022 have yet to be announced as of this writing, but it's expected that he'll be back in a part-time capacity with Rick Ware Racing once again. He drove for this team last year and made a surprising 27 starts rotating between RWR's No. 15, No. 51 and No. 53 cars. While that was a lot of racing, there were little results to show for as he would finish with a lofty 31.3 average finish and no Top 20's to his credit. With just one DNF, Smithley kept his cars in action for most of the season and did not retire to the garage early very often. That was a big bonus for a back-marker team. However, the ceiling with many of the Rick Ware Racing drivers is very low due to the team's limited equipment and potential.

Smithley will continue to build his Cup Series resume with the 26 starts he made last season for Rick Ware Racing, Spire Motorsports and Tommy Baldwin Racing. It looks like the young driver could be involved in a driver rotation in the RWR No. 53 Ford. At this time, it's not clear how many starts the 28-year-old will get in this rotation, but it could be north of 20. Now with 43 Cup Series starts of experience to his credit, Smithley is no longer green. However, his ability and this team's limits will challenge his level of performance in 2021. Todd Parrott will head up the RWR No. 53 team, but that veteran crew chief will be handicapped by equipment and resource limitations. Smithley has a 33.7 average finish for his brief career in NASCAR's top division, and we see that needle moving very little this season.

Smithley has been very steady the last two seasons for this Xfinity Series team. The only blip on the radar was a rash of four DNF's in the final six races of last season. Were it not for that bad luck, Smithley would have posted even better numbers. The 27-year-old driver now has over 130-career starts in this division of NASCAR and his talents are being noticed. Smithley made 14 Cup Series starts last year, and the lure of racing at NASCAR's top level is pulling him in that direction. He hasn't been confirmed in the No. 0 Chevrolet at the time of this writing, and various rumors have Smithley possibly moving to Cup full-time for Rick Ware Racing. This is a situation to watch closely in the pre-season. This driver and team present some deep-league value if they go racing together in 2020.

Smithley did some great work in 2018 with his JD Motorsports race team. The 26-year-old Georgia native earned one Top-5 and two Top-10 finishes in just his third full season of racing in this division of NASCAR. While week-to-week consistency was a bit of an issue, Smithley still showed some impressive driving skill throughout the 33-race schedule. JDM hasn't announced plans for the 2019 season, but it's expected that this driver and team will return fully intact. The team enjoyed sponsorship from multiple companies in 2018, and hopefully that can pull off the puzzle-work needed to fully fund Smithley and the No. 0 Chevrolet again this season.

At the time of this writing Smithley has not been named to the No. 0 Chevrolet, however, it is expected that he'll return to this team in 2018. He ran the full schedule with this race team last year and earned two Top-10 and 13 Top-25 finishes. The seven DNF's that Smithley suffered chopped up his consistency and led to the 21st-place finish in the championship driver standings. It could be for this reason that the team has not rushed to name him the driver for the upcoming season. Still, the team plans to run the full schedule and has decent, multi-car equipment and personnel. That makes Smithley or any other driver a fairly valuable commodity in this team at this tier of the driver field.

Smithley’s rookie season in the Xfinity Series last year was a real learning experience. The 24-year-old Georgian started in all but one race of the 33-event schedule. Smithley didn’t crack the Top 10 at any point last season but he did grab a handful of Top-20 finishes along the way. His three DNF’s show that the young driver was running at the end of most races. However, the 24.0 average finish shows that the No. 0 team has a way to go before they’ll be considered a marginally competitive team. As of mid-January JD Motorsports and Smithley are still working out the details for the upcoming season, but that’s expected to be in place before the start of the campaign.