A move to Richard Childress Racing and NASCAR’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2027 is a career change Chandler Smith is looking forward to because he’s going somewhere that “truly does believe in me.”
“It’s one thing to hear owners and leadership say one thing. It’s another to see them actually act on it,” Smith said. “To see Richard Childress Racing act on what they’ve seen in me, act on their commitment to me means a lot to me. I’ve been a part of a lot of conversations where competition directors and presidents of race teams and team owners say the right things, then you look at your contract, go, ‘I thought you said something different.’”
Smith says Childress and his leadership team are men of their word.
“(They) held up every bit of what they promised… me,” Smith said. “I’m going somewhere that truly does believe in me, and they don’t audibly just say it,… they mean it and show it in action.”
Smith noted that his joining RCR was something he and team owner Richard Childress had discussed for a few years. He said Childress continuously told him he believed in him, and that he wanted him to race for him for a “very long time.”
A Talking Rock, Georgia, native, the 24-year-old Smith believes RCR is a good fit for him culturally.
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Chandler Smith.
“Richard is a very conservative individual. He’s very laid back,” said Smith, whose hometown in the foothills of the North Georgia mountains has less than 150 residents inside the town limits. “Richard Childress Racing is a very laid-back program, and, in my opinion, kind of your blue-collar team per se. That’s kinda how I am.
“When I look at Richard Childress Racing, I see that I have all the resources I need to go and compete for race wins, and championships. Not only on the competition side do I have all the tools at my disposal to go and have success. I see it on the marketing side. I see it on the branding side that they have all the tools, all the right people to help me succeed and growing my partnerships that are already established and growing into having more partners.”
Smith is contending for a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship in his third year with Front Row Motorsports, and even though he’s leaving for RCR at the end of the season, he admits he’s “very much attached” to his current truck series team.
“All these men and women that came over from different places took a gamble on Front Row Motorsports and took a gamble on me and trusted the process of building a new race team,” said Smith, who’s won two races this year. “It takes a good three years for a brand-new team to be a quote unquote championship caliber team.”
Smith noted that Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins took a chance on him when no one else would.
“When I got let go at Joe Gibbs Racing, he was like, ‘Hey, Buddy. You’re gonna be racing whether it’s in a Cup car or a truck. I’m not gonna allow you not to be racing,’” Smith recalled. “For that security that owner has given me, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Bob because of that.”
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.