Pennsylvanian on top of his game on race track

Mark Smith has collected 19 victories behind the wheel of his sprint car this season. One more, he said, would be just fine.

Smith, of Sunbury, Pa., will be one of the favorites to win during the 33rd annual Comp Cams Short Track Nationals tonight and Saturday night at Little Rock's I-30 Speedway.

"This is the best year I've had yet," said Smith, 49, who has been racing sprints since 2001. "I'm shooting for 20 and I've got like eight more races left this season. But they can be tough to come by when you're trying hard."

Smith's season has been nearly unmatched in open-wheel racing in 2020. It has been topped only by former NASCAR star Kyle Larson, who had last count had collected 37 victories while driving midgets, sprint cars (winged and wingless, 410 cubic-inch and 360 ci) and USAC Champ cars.

All but one of Smith's victories this season have come in 360s -- he won a 410 event in May at St. Francois County Raceway in Farmington, Mo. -- and his 18 360 victories top the nation. His season breakdown is impressive: 41 starts, 19 victories (in 7 states), 30 top-five finishes and 34 top-10s.

He was especially dominant in September, when strung together five consecutive victories, including a victory at I-30 in the Ralph Henson Memorial, an American Sprint Car Series regional event. He closed out the run during a three-day ASCS national tour event at Wheatland, Mo., where he won twice and drooped to a third in the finale.

"I haven't changed anything," he said. "Just try to keep doing the same thing. It's hard to win races, especially at that amount."

A veteran of the large and extremely competitive sprint racing scene in Pennsylvania, Smith has spent most of this season and parts of others racing in the South.

The owner of Mach 1 Chassis, a sprint car chassis manufacturer, Smith developed a friendship and working relationship with veteran sprint driver Dale Howard of Byhalia, Miss. As a result, Smith returns to the region often "to see what the race tracks were like down there," he said. Howard's shop serves as an away-from-home home base.

When the covid-19 pandemic struck, Smith found more racing was available to the south when the United Sprint Car Series began holding events in Florida before racing began to expand across that part of the country.

"With this whole covid thing this year, our racing in Pennsylvania was shut down for like three months. Nothing," Smith said earlier this week from Pennsylvania. "But the USCS was racing down South. So I basically loaded up everything and my family, and we moved to Mississippi for a month and a half. We just raced out of Dale's place and have been doing that all summer just because of the circumstances."

He has found the smaller, tighter tracks like those at I-30, Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis and others in the region more to his liking than the large half-mile tracks near his home.

"I prefer to travel more now, just because I like the race tracks down South," Smith said. "It's more affordable. It's way easier on engines, easier on tires. We travel a distance, but it's cheaper for us equipment wise -- half the wear and tear."

Smith has competed at the Short Track Nationals only one other time, when he qualified for the main event in 2016 and finished sixth. While he said he can appreciate the level of competition the event will attract, Smith said his game plan will not change.

"I like [I-30]. It's a nice little elbows-up track," he said. "I take all the races the same. We can draw [a heat race starting spot] in the back, it just means we have to pass race cars. If you can't pass them, then you're in trouble."

PAST WINNERS

2019 Blake Hahn, Sapulpa, Okla. 2018 Blake Hahn, Sapulpa, Okla. 2017 Sammy Swindell, Cordova, Tenn.

2016 Sammy Swindell, Cordova, Tenn.

2015 Rainout

2014 Christopher Bell, Norman, Okla. 2013 Sammy Swindell, Cordova, Tenn.

2012 Paul McMahan, Hendersonville, Tenn.

2011 Sammy Swindell, Cordova, Tenn.

2010 Brad Sweet, Grass Valley, Calif. 2009 Tony Bruce Jr., Liberal, Kan. 2008 Tony Bruce Jr., Liberal, Kan. 2007 Jason Meyers, Clovis, Calif. 2006 Jason Johnson, Eunice, La. 2005 Tim Montgomery, Frederick-town, Mo.

2004 Gary Wright, Hooks, Texas 2003 Gary Wright, Hooks, Texas 2002 Paul McMahan, Hendersonville, Tenn.

2001 Jason Sides, Bartlett, Tenn. 2000 Mike Ward, Memphis

1999 Gary Wright, Hooks, Texas 1998 Tim Crawley, Benton

1997 Wayne Johnson, Oklahoma City 1996 Pete Butler, Mabelvale

1995 Gary Wright, Hooks, Texas 1994 Terry Gray, Bartlett, Tenn. 1993 John Gerloff, Lincoln, Neb. 1992 Rainout

1991 Steve Kinser, Bloomington, Ind. 1990 Sammy Swindell, Cordova, Tenn.

1989 Steve Kinser, Bloomington, Ind. 1988 Steve Kinser, Bloomington, Ind.

Drivers pre-entered as of Wednesday for the 33rd annual Comp Cams Short Track Nationals sprint car event that will be held tonight and Saturday at Little Rock’s I-30 Speedway:

Koty Adams, Haughton, La.

Ernie Ainsworth, Bartlett, Tenn.

Brandon Anderson, Glenpool, Okla.

Chris Banja, Beebe

Seth Bergman, Snohomish, Wash.

Ryan Bickett, Ramona, S.D.

Devon Borden, Raymond, Wash.

Brad Bowden, Hernando, Miss.

Landon Britt, Memphis

Pete Butler, Mabelvale

Jeremy Campbell, Goddard, Kan.

John Carney II, El Paso, Texas

Kyle Clark, Sapulpa, Okla.

Matt Covington, Glenpool, Okla.

Tim Crawley, Benton

Roger Crockett, Medford, Ore.

Cody Gardner, Benton

Dustin Gates, Haughton, La.

Sam Hafertepe Jr., Sunnyvale, Texas

Derek Hagar, Marion

Blake Hahn, Sapulpa, Okla.

Cody Hays, Wynne

Alex Hill, Six Nations, Ontario

Dustin Homan, Marquand, Mo.

Chase Howard, Nesbit, Miss.

Cody Howard, Byhalia, Miss.

Dale Howard, Byhalia, Miss.

Ronny Howard, Nesbit, Miss.

Blake Jenkins, Benton

Junior Jenkins, Greenville, Texas

Connor Leoffler, Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Charlie Louden, Camden

Jamie Manley, Memphis

Hayden Martin, Olive Branch, Miss.

Jeremy Middleton, North Little Rock

Joseph Miller, Cove

Howard Moore, Memphis

Kyle Offill, Tracy, Calif.

Joseph Poe, Scott

Robbie Price, Cobble Hill, British Columbia

Rick Pringle, Benton

Richard Reynolds, Doyline, La.

Danny Sams III, North Port, Fla.

Dominic Scelzi, Fresno, Calif.

Marshall Skinner, West Memphis

Danny Smith, Chillicothe, Ohio

Mark Smith, Sunbury, Pa.

Cody Stacy, Goliad, Texas

Asa Swindell, Bartlett, Tenn.

Jeff Swindell, Bartlett, Tenn.

Brandon Taylor, Cumming, Ga.

Colby Thornhill, Enumclaw, Wash.

Michael Vaculik, Hot Springs Village

Jeffery West Jr., Atoka, Tenn.

Dylan Westbrook, Scotland, Ontario

DeWayne White, Byhalia, Miss.

Harli White, Lindsay, Okla.

Garet Williamson, Kingdom City, Mo.

Joe Young, Benton