MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Sept. 27, 2024) – Sammy Smith qualified for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs in 2024 on the strength of solid finishes in the final regular-season rounds, and will start the postseason as the 11th seed. The young driver clinched his position in the final race of the regular season at Bristol Motor Speedway, having posted five top-five and 13 top-10 finishes.
Crew chief Phillip Bell, who assumed his spot atop the pit box for the regular season’s final three races, minced few words when it came to the top priority for the No. 8 Pilot Flying J Chevrolet team in the playoffs.
Consistency
“It has to be consistency,” Bell said prior to this week’s playoff opener at Kansas Speedway. “I feel like we have a good process for targeting what we need at certain tracks in the Playoffs. I want to see consistency, everyone coming in working hard and doing the right things to unload fast race cars. Races are won during the week, so we need to stick to the process and consistently do the right things.”
Opening Round
Right off the bat, Bell said that a solid run at Kansas was the key to making the Round of 8, despite the short time the group has had together, and feels that the trust among team members has already blossomed.
“The strength for us as a team and as a company is Kansas,” he said. “I like where we’re at there. The transition (of swapping teams) has been good, but you have a short timetable. My main focus here is establishing that trust. Getting Sammy to trust me when I tell him something, he has to know that to the bottom of his heart. When he tells me it is doing something, I have to trust that too.”
Process
With just three races together, the process is going to be a key factor in how the first round plays out, Bell said.
“Sammy is very talented and a hard worker, and I like that a lot,” Bell said of his driver. “We need to see that consistency across the board. Kansas will tell a lot, really. Talladega is the biggest tossup for everybody, and once you get to The Roval, you have to go off the first two races to figure out how urgent you have to be on that road course.”
In terms of a wild-card race, Bell pointed to the second race of the Round of 12 at Talladega Superspeedway. “It’s a speedway,” he said. “We run four of those a year, so you know what you’ve got. Our philosophy is to go in there with a car that is drivable so you can make moves. That’s pretty straightforward there.”
The No. 8 team for JR Motorsports:
Driver: Sammy Smith
Crew Chief: Phillip Bell
Lead engineer: Tyler Trebilcock
Second engineer: Cale Lindley
Car chief: Anthony Alonzo
Mechanics: Ritchie Snyder, Josh Horton
Spotter: Tyler Monn
Truck driver: Josh and Trish Seaford
