OXFORD – Oxford native Rusty Smith completed the most successful season of his near 20-year career, earlier this month with a top-10 finish at the prestigious John Blewett III Memorial North-South Shootout at Concord Motorsports Park in Concord, North Carolina.

“It’s probably the top modified race on the East Coast,” Smith said. “The teams that race there, money is no object. I bet there was at least 20 guys who all they do is race cars. And we ran with them all day. Tenth-place is not what we would consider our normal standard, but it was the most competition we’ve ever seen, and we proved we could run with those guys.”