Greenville, SC March 27, 2010:  Andrew Smith made his stock car debut in grand fashion in the K&N Pro Series East race at the historic Greenville-Pickens Speedway on Saturday, March 27 as he piloted the #37 Spraker Racing Enterprises Chevrolet to a second place finish.

It was a weekend filled with "firsts", for the young driver from Pooler, Georgia, and Andrew made the most of the opportunity. Of the 32 cars that showed up for the event, he was 11th on the speed charts in his first ever practice session in the full-sized cars. He managed to improve up to 6th fastest in the final practice.

"The car wasn’t too good when we first went out, but David ( crew-chief, David Ifft ) and the guys really got it driving right," commented Andrew.

Although he confessed to being "a little nervous" about his first ever qualifying attempt in a stock car, Andrew rose to the challenge and posted the 4th fastest time in the session and secured himself a much-coveted starting spot near the front of the field.

As the race progressed, Smith ran in the top ten during the entire event and was at one point the fastest car on the track. As the laps wound down, he had moved up to the 4th spot. On a late restart, he lined up behind defending series champion Ryan Truex.  As the green flag dropped, Truex spun his tires and may have missed a shift causing Andrew to get into the back of the NAPA Toyota of Truex. This caused the field to stack up behind them and created a huge pileup in turn one. Andrew’s Chevy was completely sideways when another car hit him.

"When I got hit in the left front, it straightened the car up and I just nailed it," explained Andrew after the race.

Even though the car was heavily damaged, Smith was able to continue after the incident and restarted in the third position on lap 143. The top 3 were pulling away from the field when caution came out again on lap 148, setting up a green-white-checkered finish.

Restarting in the 3rd spot, Smith held his position through turns one and two, As the cars exited turn two and onto the backstretch, the leader Wallace and the second place car of Whitt made contact and caused the outside line to stack up. Andrew was able to dive to the inside and followed race winner Darrell Wallace, Jr. under the checkered flag for a second place finish in his first-ever NASCAR race.

"It was an awesome run," said Smith. "We had an amazing run. We gave away a little track position in the beginning trying to save our tires - maybe a little too much - but we battled back in the end and beat our way for second."

Andrew and the Spraker team will be carrying a lot of momentum into the race at South Boston Speedway on April 3rd.  It will be Andrew’s first trip to the historic Virginia track.

"My guys told me that I will like South Boston better than Greenville, so we should be in good shape," observed Andrew.

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Andrew Smith drives the #37 Spraker Racing Enterprises Chevrolet in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series. He is in his rookie season and is competing for Rookie of the Year honors. You can follow his success at www.andrewsmithracing.com

Spraker Racing Enterprises is a full-service racing operation, and currently owns and prepares cars in the NASCAR K&N Pro East Series, as well as the ARCA Racing Series. Jeff Spraker has been an owner, driver and consultant for over 25 years, and has established a strong reputation for the development of young talent, utilizing a driver’s perspective for coaching coupled with years of "hands on" technical experience. 

Sponsorship opportunities are available for the #37 team.  For information, contact Spraker Racing Enterprises at (704) 799-1300.