With just one win in 10 races as he prepares to wrap up his season with Saturday’s Billy Clanton Classic at his hometown track of Senoia (Ga.) Raceway, 2020 hasn’t been a very productive year for Clint Smith when it comes to his on-track performance. Watch the Billy Clanton Classic live.

But off the track, Smith has had plenty to celebrate. From the birth of his first grandchild this summer to the continued growth of his race car building and consulting business, there’s been plenty to keep the 55-year-old Smith both happy and busy.

If he were missing the accolades and attention that comes with racing more often and scoring more wins as he has been accustomed to doing during his nearly 40-year career, Smith received something to help make up for it with last week’s National Dirt Late Model Hall off Fame Class of 2021 announcement. Smith, the former World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series regular whose career includes more than 320 overall victories, was announced as one of eight members of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2021.

“It kind of took me by surprise to be honest,” said Smith, who along with the class’s other four drivers and three contributors to the sport will be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame during the 2021 Sunoco Race Fuels North-South 100 weekend next August. “I always thought it could happen, but you look back on your career and you try to evaluate it and it’s hard to say. I never really dominated anything, but I won a lot of races and a lot of big races that kind of built up over the years. You look at it all at one time now looking back, I guess I really did have a lot of success over them years.

“It really is special. It’s special because it’s about all of the 35-40 years I’ve been racing. It means a lot to get that recognition that says that you really did accomplish a lot and it’s worth getting in to the Hall of Fame.”

Smith has indeed found much success over his lengthy career. Following the tire tracks of his father Roscoe, himself a 2001 National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame inductee, the younger Smith launched his career in the early 1980s competing at locally at Seven Flags Speedway in Douglasville, Ga., and his hometown Senoia Raceway. After multiple track championships while climbing the ranks, Smith branched out on a touring career that would eventually produce four Southern All Stars Series championships and a points title in the inaugural season of the Hav-A-Tampa Dirt Racing Series in 1993.

Later in his touring career, Smith became a stalwart on the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series. He was a member the Dirty Dozen that made up the the national tour’s full-time driver roster for its first season under the World Racing Group banner in 2004 and he stayed full time with the series for 11 seasons. His career-best WoO season came in 2007 when he earned four victories and finished third in series points.

Among his more than 320 overall victories, Smith’s win totals include 12 WoO triumphs, four Hav-A-Tampa victories and 13 Southern All Star wins. His notable event wins include the 2005 Hillbilly 100 and four wins in East Alabama Motor Speedway’s Alabama State Championships.

Smith stepped away from the national spotlight when he dropped off the WoO tour in 2015, but he made an easy transition back to regional and weekly competition and won plenty of races between Super, Limited and Crate Late Model action.

While Smith has enjoyed plenty of success since cutting back his traveling — more than 70 of his feature wins have come since he returned to regional and local racing — the past five years have certainly been a transition period. Each season he’s focused less on his own racing and more on expanding his business, CSR Aluminum Fabrication, through which he builds and sells cars along with assisting up-and-coming drivers through driver coaching and setup support.

“I really enjoy helping the young drivers and the kids getting them interested and trying to build the sport,” said Smith, whose 10 races this season include only four Super Late Model events. “I like to see those guys win because it’s like I’m winning the race.

“Ashton Winger with the Rookie of the Year in the World of Outlaws this year, we’ve helped him a lot, and Zach Leonhardi, he was Rookie (of the Year) last year on the Southern All Stars, and Austin Horton won Rookie of the Year and Southern All Stars champion year before last. All these guys are like 20 years old and we’ve helped them a lot over the years. That’s pretty special watching them come up and knowing I’ve had a direct impact on them. That makes it just as special as many winning anything, watching them guys come up and get it done and knowing that I had a part in it.

“We’ve been helping Tanner Collins since he started. We just sold another XR1 to McKenna Nelms, which is one of the female racers that’s up and coming. She’s breaking that one out this weekend, so we’ll be helping her and see how she does. We’ve also had Maddie Crane in my car a couple times this year and she does real good. It’s a pretty cool deal to be part of helping these kids come up and get going.”

Even though he’s less focused on his own racing, that doesn’t mean Smith has lost his competitiveness when he’s on the track, even when he’s racing against one of his clients.

“Everybody likes to win. Even with these kids I’m helping, I tell them I’ll help ya, but I’m not gonna give it to you,” said Smith, who even with his reduced schedule this season isn’t planning on retiring from driving anytime soon. “I loving help them, but I like to compete, too. And as long as I’m competitive, then I’ll keep doing it as long as I can. When I get to the point that I feel like I’m not competitive and I’m out there in the way, then I’ll step back and just focus on working on cars and just helping other drivers.”

Smith has made his competitive side obvious in each of his last two outings. He won a Limited Late Model race at Senoia on Sept. 19 and was a solid fifth in Sept. 26’s Southern All Star feature at Senoia. Smith’s victory on Sept. 19 was especially meaningful because it was his first win as a grandfather. A little over a month after his daughter Jenna Wilson and son-in-law Andy Wilson, who also serves as Smith’s crew chief, welcomed their first child, the whole family, complete with Smith’s wife Kim, celebrated in victory lane.

“It was pretty cool to get a win and have her in victory lane and all of us there together, “Smith said. “Between that and the Hall of Fame and seeing these young guys I’ve been helping have the success they’re having, it’s just all sort of coming full circle for me I guess and it’s really special for me.”

With all he’s experienced on and off the track in 2020, the year will certainly go down as a memorable one for Smith. But it could be even more noteworthy with a solid performance in his final race of the season this weekend at Senoia in the $10,000-to-win event sanctioned by the Schaeffer’s Fall Nationals.

To make that happen, he’ll have to be competitive against one of the toughest fields he’s faced all season in an older Rocket Chassis that he typically only runs in Limited Late Model races. In perhaps a perfect display of how Smith now puts his business and serving his clients ahead of his own racing, Smith sold his newer XR1 Rocket to one of his clients, Tanner Collins, who promptly won in the car in a Crate Racin’ USA Series event at Talladega Short Track in Eastaboga, Ala.

“That was my main car that he went over there and won with and I was happy to see him do that,” Smith said. “But it’s kind of put us behind for this week because we’re not getting a new car until next year, so we’ll be running our Limited car that we put the Super motor in. It’s a 2012, so we’re going to be years behind on the technology.

“We’ll do the best we can to be competitive and run with those guys. It won’t be easy with this car, but we’re going to get after and see if we can make it happen. If we can get a good top-five to get out of here at the end of the year, we’ll be real happy as a team.”