NEWTON, Iowa — An Iowa native returns to the state to race in the NASCAR weekend series at the Iowa Speedway in Newton.

Sammy Smith was born and raised in Johnston and was always a fan of racing. That liking only strengthened when he got older. Now, Smith races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and takes on the Iowa Speedway on Saturday.

Though Smith no longer lives in Iowa, he is excited to return and race in front of a hometown crowd.

“It’s cool to be able to go back home and race in front of all my friends and family,” Smith said. “It’s cool to have (TMC Trucking) on my car next week with it being their home race. I think there’s a lot of people coming out and hopefully we can put on a good show. We had a really good car there last year and I felt like we were in a good position to win, and it would mean everything to win there next week, and I believe hopefully we can go and do that.”

Smith won the ARCA Menards Series race in 2021 in Newton. Last year, he placed 4th in the Hy-Vee Perks 250. Now, he’s going for a win in the Xfinity Series on Saturday when the green flag drops at 3:30 p.m. at the Iowa Speedway.

A full schedule of race weekend can be found here.