"Anything less is failure": Sammy Smith's crew chief demands nothing short of a championship as playoffs begin

Crew chief Phillip Bell has set some high expectations for his driver, Sammy Smith, and the No. 8 team to claim the NASCAR Xfinity Series title.

Smith, who is tied for the second-lowest top-5 finishes among playoff drivers so far this season, will head into the playoffs with a mixed record. He has two top-10 finishes in four starts at Bristol, which will host the first race of the Round of 12 this weekend. His best run there was fourth in the spring race.

The JR Motorsports driver has an average finish of 21.7 in three starts at Kansas Speedway and one top-10 finish at Charlotte's Roval in two races.

"The expectation is to win the championship. The expectation is to be in the final four, and he's [Sammy Smith] won at Phoenix before. Anything less than that is failure," Phillip Bell told NASCAR, via Yahoo Sports.

Smith's first Xfinity win came at Phoenix during his rookie 2023 season with Joe Gibbs Racing.

"You have to take it one stage at a time. You can't overthink it. You have to take it one race at a time," Bell added.

Smith's record this year is not ideal for the Xfinity title, but he is determined to prove people wrong. The 21-year-old has only five top-five finishes, including a win at Rockingham Speedway. Smith won the 2025 North Carolina Education Lottery 250 after Jesse Love was disqualified following the post-race inspection.

Smith has also had two underwhelming results in the past two weeks after two top-5s at Watkins Glen and Daytona. He finished 22nd after completing all 78 laps at Portland and three laps down in 33rd place at Gateway last week.

"We can prove a lot of people wrong" - Sammy Smith on qualifying for final four

Sammy Smith, who renewed his contract with JR Motorsports for 2026, is confident of making it to the final four this season. He ended the regular season 10th in points but is now ranked sixth in the standings, four points below Joe Gibbs Racing's Brandon Jones.

"We haven't been as consistent as we need to be," Sammy Smith said, via the aforementioned source.

"I'm sure to a lot of people on paper, it probably looks like we're not very good as a team and we struggle, but I think we can prove a lot of people wrong and prove to ourselves that we can do it," he added.

Smith is definitely in a better position than last season, when he barely made it to the playoffs as the 16th seed. He won his first race of the 2024 at Talladega, which moved him to the Round of 8.

The 2025 Xfinity Series playoffs will start this Friday, September 12, at 7:30 pm at Bristol Motor Speedway.