From a record setting debut season that saw scouts rate him as one of the highest graded prospects in ASCA history to out of the sport in half a decade - the downfall of Devin Smith is not one many saw coming.
The Fallon Corner - February 2026
The year is 2021.
It’s August, the leaves are browning, school is just getting ready to start back up again, and another Speedweeks in the ASCA is upon us.
The talk of the town heading into that campaign was not whether or not reigning champion Diego Orkedi could run it back hoisting the trophy.
Rather, it was focused on the record setting rookie class featuring SIX drivers vying for Rookie of the Year honors.
The two headliners from that class were Shane Park and Devin Smith, the top two in the Craftsman Series standings a year ago.
Both of these young men were highly regarded as ‘can’t miss’ prospects by ASCA scouts and pundits, with Smith even being regarded as the ‘safer’ option of the two due to his older age of 22.
If you’re a newer fan of the sport, you probably only recognize one of those names. You might even be wondering, ‘who the hell is Devin Smith?’
Today, we take a look back at three reasons why the Livonia, Michigan native went from the ‘next Jimmy Hood’, to arguably the biggest ASCA bust of all time in just half a decade.
Devin Smith was RUSHED
The general development timeline for a budding young talent in the ASCA is: a few part time Craftsman starts in standalone events their first year to get their feet wet, two full years to grow and develop in the lower leagues, and by then their results should speak for themselves enough to be promoted to Cup.
This process isn’t exactly a perfect science however, as there are drivers such as Laquon Scransen and Chris Barrymore that did just fine after one year of Craftsman experience before taking the leap.
But it is safe to say this route of development did not work out well for Devin Smith.
The easiest path to Craftsman Series success over past decade has been piloting the flagship No. 6 entry for the Ford Development Program.
The FDP has easily been the most dominant powerhouse in the lower leagues during that span, as year in and year out their five car outfit has at least one of its entries as a threat to win on a weekly basis.
Expectations are to win and compete for championships when driving a blue oval in the lower leagues. Anything less, and you’re probably not going to make it far in this business.
This is why, in hindsight, Devin Smith’s immediate Craftsman success should’ve been taken with a grain of salt - he was just doing what he was supposed to do.
Sure, he broke the single season wins record as a rookie. Yes, he almost won his first race on debut at San Diego.
However, Smith was a late bloomer. At 21 years old, he was a grown man amongst a field full of late teenagers - so anything less would’ve been an indictment on him.
For comparison, his successor Carson Schmidt was only 18 years of age when he filled the void Smith left in the No. 6 for the 2021 season. By the age of 21, he bested former Cup champion Greg Healey for his first win at West Virginia.
Many assumed that at Smith’s advanced age, he’d be ready immediately for the pressures big league auto racing would heap upon him. That his race craft would be polished enough to where a second year in Craftsman wouldn’t be necessary.
But as we’d find out very early on, that assessment couldn’t have been further from the truth.
One has to wonder how much different Smith’s career could’ve been had he gotten that extra year of development he so desperately needed.
Devin Smith was RECKLESS
It became apparent before his rookie season even began that Devin Smith was not quite polished enough for the big leagues - as he was arrested for doing 138 mph in his hometown on a 70 mph highway.
Many just brushed this off as no big deal at the time, but it proved to be a major red flag of immaturity and lack of judgment at the time that would seep into his on track performance very soon.
Smith had a tendency to overdrive his race cars all his life according to those closest to him. This didn’t matter much growing up due his sheer amount of raw talent bailing him out, or in the Craftsman Series where his OP equipment plus his talent was a deadly combination.
However, when Smith couldn’t rely on his talent or equipment alone to bail him out at the Cup level - this is where his reckless tendencies would be his downfall.
Smith’s sophomore season comes to mind as a great example of this. While he won a pole and led the opening 27 laps in the second race of the year at West Virginia, that race plus SEVEN others ended in DNF’s - including notable incidents such as the Northern 200 or WesBanco 250 where a severe lack of judgment did him in.
This was supposed to be the year that Smith built off the fantastic finish to his rookie year. Five top 10’s in the last five races saw him nearly steal Rookie of the Year honors from Shane Park with his furious late rally, and the expectation was that he’d carry that momentum into a sophomore surge.
Instead, the Livonia native finished a paltry 19th in the final standings; and his career never recovered from this.
It was announced relatively early in the 2023 season that Michael White Racing had seen enough from the Devin Smith experiment to know he was not the guy, letting him walk after his rookie contract onto a ‘prove it’ deal with Tico Bowden Motorsports.
Two years later, and he’s now out of the sport entirely.
Devin Smith Had to Live Up to Unrealistic Expectations
A forgotten part of the Devin Smith story is the fact that Michael White Racing all but forced Dan Rodgers into retirement just to make room for Smith his rookie season.
Rodgers was 38 years old at the time, but was coming off matching his career high of wins in a season the year prior and still visited victory lane once later that year.
Fast forward to today, and Rodgers is still winning races in the ADRS. Smith, on the other hand, is now just trying to work his way up that same sanctioning body’s ladder in the lower leagues just to prolong his racing career.
Talk about poetic justice.
But not only did Smith have to unfairly follow in the footsteps of a borderline Hall of Famer, he was also being compared to the likes of legends Jimmy Hood and Randle Woods before he even made an ASCA start!
The media hype train (myself included) hyped him up like he was the second coming, eerily similar to the push another Toyota talent, Tony Del Valle II, is getting today.
Smith was the modern era’s original ‘can’t miss’ prospect, and to make matters worse received nonstop comparisons to Shane Park after their incredible title fight at the Craftsman level in 2020.
Both drivers made the jump up to Cup the following year, and both finished top two in that historically crowded class of rookie - Park getting the better of Smith again by just eight points.
We naturally assumed that these two would continue their rivalry for the next decade to come, the rise of two new superstars at the Cup level.
And while Park has become just that, Smith never did. Nor did he even come close.
In fairness though, 98% of drivers fail to come close to the talent Shane Park has. That same percentage fail to accomplish what Dan Rodgers has in multiple different stock car disciplines.
Being constantly compared to those two plus other ASCA legends from day 1, it’s no wonder Devin Smith didn’t pan out in this sport.
He simply never stood a chance.
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