Garrett Smithley, who has made 15 starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this season for JD Motorsports, will attempt his first start of the year in the No. 45 Chevrolet Camaro for Alpha Prime Racing. The driver and team announced their partnership for this weekend’s Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway via a social media post on Monday afternoon.
The 32-year-old driver will carry sponsorship in the event from longtime partners Trophy Tractor and Rich Mar Florist.
Brickyard Bound! ?@GarrettSmithley joins the #45 team and will pilot the @TrophyTractor/@RichMarFlorist Chevy at @IMS this weeeknd.#Pennzoil250 | @XfinityRacing pic.twitter.com/F5xUYt7bM3
— Alpha Prime Racing (@TeamAlphaPrime) July 15, 2024
Smithley, who is a journeyman racer in his 10th season of competition in the NASCAR Xfinity Series ranks, has a best finish of 16th this season, which came in the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway.
In 173 career starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Smithley boasts a career-best finish of fifth, which came at Daytona International Speedway back in 2018.
The opportunity with Alpha Prime Racing should give Smithley a bump-up in performance as the two full-time Alpha Prime Racing cars have performed admirably this year. The organization’s two full-time entries are being piloted by Brennan Poole and Ryan Ellis.
Poole has the No. 44 team ranked 19th in the NASCAR Xfinity Series owner championship standings, while Ellis has the No. 43 car in the 28th spot in the owner standings.
The team’s part-time No. 45 entry has also performed well in its two outings this season. Brad Perez drove the car to an 18th-place finish at Circuit of the Americas, and Caesar Bacarella scored his second-career top-10 finish with a seventh-place effort at Talladega Superspeedway.
The No. 45 Alpha Prime Racing car did fail to qualify for the Chicago Street Course event a couple of weeks ago with Alon Day behind the wheel, but that was due to a catastrophic crash in the opening minutes of practice at the 2.14-mile street course in Grant Park.
Smithley, a native of Ligonier, Pennsylvania was scheduled to compete at Pocono Raceway — his home track — for JD Motorsports last weekend in the No. 6 Chevrolet Camaro, but the team withdrew its entry.
On Monday morning, TobyChristie.com reported that JD Motorsports laid off a significant portion of its employees and that the team filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the district of South Carolina on April 8. JD Motorsports is not expected to be on Monday afternoon’s preliminary entry list.
