Regan Smith and Bost Motorsports will have a new motor program starting at Nazareth.. Dennis Fischer will now be supplying the engines for the #22 Chevy. Fischer made his name in NASCAR supplying Chevrolet V-6 motors to the late Dale Earnhardt in the late 1980’s from a California based operation that he has since moved to the Charlotte, NC area. Smith is excited about his first attempt at Nazareth Speedway and will be driving the same Chevy he finished 19th with last week at Gateway. As he heads to Nazareth, just like before going to St. Louis, Smith will have his friend Jerry Nadeau on his mind. On Tuesday following the Richmond race while most of the Busch Series teams and drivers were getting focused and putting the finishing touches on the cars they would be racing at St. Louis, Regan Smith and his mother Lee were on the interstate heading back to Richmond where they had just left three days earlier. Smith had raced at Richmond Friday night May 2, and finished 25th in his ninth career Busch Series start. That afternoon, a couple of hours before the start of the Busch Series race, Jerry Nadeau. — friend and a former driver for their family-owned race team — had been seriously injured in the final Winston Cup practice. Regan, Lee and his father Ronnie, had planned to drive back to the Charlotte area in their motor home from Richmond International Raceway after the race. With all the unknowns surrounding Nadeau’s condition that night they decided to stay over and go by the Medical College of Virginia Saturday morning to check on Jerry and see if there was anything they could do to help the family. “We just wanted to stop by and see Jerry’s wife Jada, let her know we were thinking of them and see if there was anything we could do or needed doing back at their house in Charlotte while they would be away,” said Regan Smith. Nadeau and Smith have many things in common, though separated by thirteen years in age.. They both came the South to race stock cars from the North, Nadeau from Danbury, Connecticut and Smith from Cato, New York. Their families started both of them racing in go-karts at the age of four. In 1995 and 1996, the paths of the two racing families crossed and Nadeau drove several races for a Busch series team owned by the Smiths. Regan was 12 and had just suffered a serious foot injury in a dirt bike accident that had him in bed and out of school for several months. “Jerry only ran a couple of races for us as he and our team were both struggling for sponsorship. We closed up the Busch team and then he went to Europe to race formula cars, but we have always stayed in close touch,” said Regan Smith. So that Tuesday, Regan and Lee came back to Richmond and had lunch with Jada and her family. Regan was able to check on Jerry. “He looked good, but he is still in a coma and though he seems to be improving we are still worried about him,” said Smith. “Other driver’s like Bobby Allison and Page Jones have recovered from more severe injuries, so I think he will be OK in the long run.”(PR)(5-16-2003)
