{"id":7109,"date":"2019-07-25T16:28:50","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T20:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=7109"},"modified":"2019-07-25T16:28:50","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T20:28:50","slug":"chandler-smith-just-waiting-in-the-wings-for-18th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2019\/07\/25\/chandler-smith-just-waiting-in-the-wings-for-18th-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Chandler Smith just waiting in the wings for 18th Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turning 18 is one of the major benchmark holidays in any young person\u2019s life. It usually means they are about done with high school. At the very least they are an adult now.<\/p>\n

But, if you\u2019re Chandler Smith, that day couldn\u2019t come soon enough.<\/p>\n

Chandler Smith just waiting in the wings for 18th Birthday<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Smith is a booming up-and-comer in the developmental stages of his promising NASCAR career, competing in the ARCA Menards Series and Gander Outdoors Truck Series on a part time basis for the 2019 season.<\/p>\n

Despite only competing in eight of the 14 ARCA races this season, Smith<\/a> had led the most laps among anyone in the series. He\u2019s also come home with four victories as well as seven top-five finishes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just thankful for it,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI\u2019ve got good people behind me. I\u2019ve got good teams in Kyle Busch Motorsports and Venturini Motorsports giving me tremendous cars and trucks. They\u2019re the ones that got me to where I am now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 17-year old is extremely talented.<\/p>\n

So why can\u2019t he get the full-time shot?<\/p>\n

Per NASCAR\u2019s rules, only can 18-year-old racers are permitted to drive on tracks larger than a mile in length.<\/p>\n

That means it\u2019s short tracks only for Smith until he turns 18 next season on June 22.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s extremely frustrating,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no cutoff date that happens before the season.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no exceptions, at least at tracks owned by NASCAR.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it should come before the season,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI think, in my circumstance, if [a driver] is having a good enough season the [year] before, why not just give them a shot at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unless something changes, Smith won\u2019t be allowed on the larger tracks until midway through the 2020 season.<\/p>\n

That makes putting together future deals a bit complicated, but Smith assured that big news is in the works.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a struggle considering I\u2019m not 18 when it comes to contract stuff like that,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe\u2019ll definitely be seeing some big moves [when I turn 18].\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chandler
Chandler Smith rides to victory lane in his No. 20 Venturini Motorsports car. Photo courtesy of Troy Hyde \/ Newton Daily News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s a slight exception in NASCAR\u2019s rules, however, that was foreshadowed earlier.<\/p>\n

NASCAR doesn\u2019t own Pocono\u2019s racetrack, so when the ARCA Series visits the three-turn, 2.5 mile triangle, Smith will be allowed to run since he reaches their 17-year-old requirement.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll be back in the car on Friday during the ARCA series<\/a> date \u2013 running once again for Venturini Motorsports.<\/p>\n

The team has secured pole position starts in 13 of the 14 races this season and looks to keep the trend going on Friday Morning (Qualfying starts at 12:35 p.m. CT)<\/p>\n

\u201cVenturini Motorsports puts out such good race cars,\u201d Smith said last week after winning the pole at Iowa Speedway. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to come to the race track with good enough cars to get these poles. It just shows how much as an organization they\u2019re doing, and how much work they\u2019re putting into these cars. It has definitely showed all season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith will once again run the No. 20 for the team in the race, which is scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m. CT at Pocono. The race will be televised by Fox Sports 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is what it is,\u201d Smith said. \u201cYou can complain all day about it, but it\u2019s not going to change anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith will keep grinding, and he\u2019s got two more truck opportunities scheduled with KBM at Bristol (August 15) and Phoenix (November 8) later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Turning 18 is one of the major benchmark holidays in any young person\u2019s life. It usually means they are about done with high school. At the very least they are an adult now. But, if you\u2019re Chandler Smith, that day couldn\u2019t come soon enough. Chandler Smith just waiting in the wings for 18th Birthday Smith […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":315,"featured_media":7110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1130,5],"tags":[960,1172,1149,387,14,1241,1175],"class_list":["post-7109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arca","category-nascar","tag-arca","tag-arca-menards-series","tag-chandler-smith","tag-kyle-busch-motorsports","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-truck-series","tag-venturini-motorsports"],"modified_by":"Connor Ferguson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}