At 32, Regan Smith feels like he’s just entering his prime as a race car driver. He’s won at least one NASCAR national series race in each of the last five seasons, including two victories this season in the Xfinity Series. He’s been regarded highly enough to substitute in Sprint Cup Series races for Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch and Kyle Larson – as well as in practice and qualifying for Jimmie Johnson. But as this season draws to a close, there’s just one problem: Smith doesn’t know where he’ll drive next year. Smith hasn’t hit the open market for three years, when he moved from Furniture Row Racing (Sprint Cup) to JR Motorsports (XFINITY). His goal was always to get back into the Sprint Cup Series, but he was determined to be patient. Now he doesn’t have a choice. JRM informed Smith it did not have a seat for him next year (new drivers Elliott Sadler and Justin Allgaier brought sponsorship with them), forcing Smith to scramble. “The misconception was, “You have something and that’s why you’re leaving JRM,'” he said. “No, I got told I didn’t have a position there in the coming season. Now I’m paying more attention to the free agency thing, I can say with 100% certainty I’ve never seen it this difficult to get things done and solidified.”(USA Today)(11-12-2015)
