12 questions with Regan Smith

Jeff Gluck | USA TODAY Sports

Our series of weekly NASCAR driver interviews continues with Regan Smith, an upstate New York native who returns to Watkins Glen International this week ranked fourth in the Xfinity Series standings for JR Motorsports.

Q: If NASCAR allowed you to listen to music while you were racing, would you want to?

A: Probably not. I get distracted easily enough as it is, and I tend to get high-strung to begin with; you can ask any of my crew guys or anybody that's ever scanned my radio. The music would have to probably be something really mellow to calm me down, and I'm not sure I'd be able to focus on driving and listen to the music, so I'd say no.

Q: Where did your first paycheck come from?

A: I don't know if this counts as a paycheck, but when I was real little — probably only 7 or 8 — my dad had a construction company and the construction workers would just throw their bottles all over the place. Then they'd come back to the yard and there'd be bottles all in the equipment, so they needed to be picked up.

Well in New York, you can take the bottles and turn them in and get five cents with the cans. So I'd take all the bottles and cans and put them in 55-gallon bags and go to a convenience store across the street. I'd turn them in and see how much I could get for them all.

But the first legit paycheck was probably working for Super Sports Racing. It was a team that was only around a year or two, but they kind of let me be a janitor there when I was 12 years old. I'd clean stuff up, and when I finished my chores or duties, they'd let me work on stuff and learn how to weld, things like that.

I don't remember that team. What series did it run?

They ran Xfinity — Busch at the time. Scott Lagasse Sr. drove a few races for them (in 1997), but I forget a lot of the details about who was on the car. It was a neat company, and a lot of guys still in the sport today were working there.

Q: Who is an autograph you got as a kid that seemed to be a big deal to you at the time?

A: Probably Dale (Earnhardt) Sr. was the big one. I don't think I was ever able to get Davey Allison's autograph, but that would have been a big deal to me.

I remember getting Dale Sr.'s autograph on a couple different occasions though. Once when I was living in New York and once when I was living down south (in the Charlotte area) at a restaurant.

So you just spotted him at a restaurant and asked for his autograph?

Well, the restaurant — I think it was called "La Pizza" — was mostly empty that day. It had snowed and Mooresville was like shut down from the snow. We drove there to eat lunch and I happened to be in a phase where I wore racing stuff every day of my life. I was decked out in an Earnhardt shirt and an Earnhardt hat. My T-shirt was all big and baggy and stretched out in the collar because I was wearing it way too much.

Somebody went to the restroom and was like, "Wow, Dale Sr. is sitting over there!" So I walked to the restroom to see if I could see him, and when I came back out he was there and said, "Hey! Nice shirt, kid." (Smith imitates a gruff voice) Anyway, he let me sit down with him for a minute. It was really cool.

Q: Where's a place you've never been that you'd like to go visit?

A: New Zealand has always intrigued me for some reason, don't ask me why. And I figure you gotta hit Australia while you're there, and the wife (Megan) wants Bora Bora. So if we could do two months and just get away from it all, that journey would be pretty cool. That's one I'd want to do most.

Q: Do people ever accuse you of being addicted to your phone?

A: My wife does, but she's about the only one. It's mostly at night. During the day, I don't pay much attention to it, and I probably get myself in trouble, because I've always got it on silent. We've got a doberman and certain text ringers will really bother him — he'll run over and cower under the table. So I put it on silent and keep it in my pocket, and if I'm not thinking about it, I'll miss stuff on my phone.

But when it's nighttime or dinner time or we're out at a restaurant, I'm probably on it too much and not paying enough attention to her. She tries to make a rule that we have to set our cell phones on the table and leave them there, and I usually lose.

I would think that your history as the "Super Sub" and getting called into last-minute duty would help your cause when it comes to having an excuse to look at your phone.

That excuse might work on a Saturday night, but if it's a Monday or Tuesday night and you're out to dinner, it doesn't fly very well. (Laughs)

Q: If a genie promised you a Sprint Cup Series championship in exchange for never being able to do your favorite hobby again, would you accept that offer?

A: Sure. Absolutely. Well, my favorite hobby is driving a race car. So if I could have a Cup championship, I'd be like, "Alright, I'm out! On to the next thing." I'd go figure something else out.

Q: What's your preferred method of dealing with an angry driver after a race?

A: It depends on who it is and what the situation is — whether I thought I was in the wrong. It's all circumstantial. If you're in the wrong and you know you were in the wrong, you're not going to solve anything by going up to them right away. They're mad and if you say they're right, they're just going to get madder and madder. It's better to let them cool down first.

Q: Do you ever get mistaken for another driver or celebrity?

A: We don't look anything alike, but me and David Ragan seem to have that problem quite a bit. I get called David so often, I almost answer to it now. And he's told me the same thing, that he gets called Regan all the time. Our voices don't sound anything alike and nothing really resembles each other, but people still do it anyway.

Q: If you had a time machine and you could travel to any year and race, where would you go?

A: For me, it would be '92. Growing up, that was the season I really remember. I was a huge Davey Allison fan, and that was a big year for Davey. And you look at that season, and some of the best and most important races we've ever seen in NASCAR happened that season.

You had the Winston — the first night race (which came to be known as the "One Hot Night" All-Star race) — and it had an absolutely crazy ending. To this day, it's probably still my favorite race to watch of all time.

Fast forward to the Atlanta race to end the season and you've got three guys within six points of a championship. One guy knows he's got to lead one more lap to clinch it and the guy who seemingly had it in the bag crashes out early on. It's Richard Petty's last race, it's Jeff Gordon's first race.

Just that whole season seemed interesting to me. That was the first season I really remember paying attention and starting to understand the cars more. It'd be fun to go race that era.

Q: Would you rather have the ability to fly or be invisible?

A: Invisible.

Why's that?

I don't really like flying to begin with. I just think you could accomplish a lot more while being invisible. People might say, "Oh, you're picking invisible — that's creepy." No, it's nothing creepy. It's just that how many times do you say, "I' d like to be a fly on the wall somewhere and see what's being said" or want to get in somewhere without any hassle? That's why I'd pick invisible.

Q: I've been asking each person to give me a question for the next interview. The last interview was with Jimmie Johnson, who wanted to know: How much fun did you have subbing for him when you had the "pleasure" of working with Chad Knaus at Richmond in 2013? He was being a bit sarcastic, by the way.

A: (Laughs) Of all the substitution jobs and fill-in jobs I've done, it was hands down the most intimidating. Chad is a very strong personality. He was good to me — don't get me wrong, everything was fine there — but you're getting into the car of what was a five-time champion at the time, soon to be six. And Chad's like, "Hey, just go out there and get us a good qualifying spot." Yeah, no pressure, right?

It was definitely educational to see how those guys worked and the level of intensity they have at all times, how they flow. I don't get intimidated much anymore — I'd like to think I've been around long enough — but that one was intimidating.

Q: And do you have a question I can ask the next driver? It's Kyle Busch.

A: Being the father of a boy, have you experienced any unexpected "showers" yet? And more seriously, did preparing for his birth help keep your mind off not being at the racetrack during the recovery process?

Q: Finally, how did this interview go on a scale of 1-10?

A: So is this like the Jeff Gluck self-promotion question? (Laughs) I didn't get to talk about the Broncos at all, so I'd say probably a 9.

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck

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