Billy Ray Smith-Thompson

Billy Ray Smith-Thompson (born September 4, 1972 in Tampa, Florida) is an American stock car driver.

Smith-Thompson made his name racing in the sprint car ranks, where he claims to have had 500 feature victories. However, it is widely believed that number may be slightly inflated.

He was known as the "Wild Thing" during his career as a winged sprint car driver. During the off-season, Smith-Thompson hosts a weekly racing-themed game show called It's a Racin' Deal on local Tampa Bay television.

National Racing Championship
Smith-Thompson started his 2012 season with a flourish, finishing 11th at Daytona. He ran poorly at Ohio, finishing 24th. He was disgusted with his car after the race, saying the car was "crap. Couldn't go forward - no grip. Glad you got to talk to me."

At Tampa, his home track, Smith-Thompson bounced back to finish 16th, still not an optimal finish, but an improvement. Memphis saw Smith-Thompson build on his momentum to come home ninth: his first top-10 finish of the season. Smith-Thompson would again finish ninth at Martinsville, his second consecutive finish there.

Consistency was clearly in Smith-Thompson's favor, and it wouldn't be long before his perseverance would be rewarded. At Salem Speedway, Smith-Thompson caught a caution on Lap 40, and came out of the pits with the lead of the race. He dominated the second half of the event, leading 58 of the race's last 60 laps and cruising to his first career win by just over a second over Nick Azure, who finished second.

"How 'bout that?" a jubilant Smith-Thompson said from Victory Lane. "I gotta thank the guys at the shop for giving me such a fast hot rod. This is freakin' awesome! Glad you got to talk to me."

Smith-Thompson had a very consistent run after that, and as the season wound down there was discussion of him in the RROL title hunt. He ultimately finished in second place behind eventual champion Collin Evans, claiming Rookie of the Year honors.

FARC
Smith-Thompson moved to the FARC LoBo Truck Tour in 2014 on a part-time schedule, where he became famous for winning at the Albuquerque Speedbowl despite flipping his truck early in the race. However, a bad accident in a FARC Elite Series Powered by Smash Beer event at the New York Autoring cut his season short.

After spending 2015 in the FARC Super Series, Smith-Thompson received the biggest opportunity of his career yet when he was hired by Pearson-Sweeney Motorsports to drive the legendary #2 Smash Beer Lenard of Andy Pearson. Smith-Thompson went winless in 2016, but broke through in 2017 with two wins, including the double points Lowe Dollar High Stakes 150, and charged through the field in the season-ending Rockford 200 to clinch the championship by two points over Lev Azarov.

Trivia

 * Starts every interview, no matter how he finishes in the race, with the phrase "How 'bout that?", and ends them with "Glad you got to talk to me."
 * The character of Smith-Thompson is borrowed from a bit from the Bubba the Love Sponge show, in which Smith-Thompson, as the host of It's a Racin' Deal, asks racing trivia questions of the other members of the show (who are not racing fans in the slightest). Smith-Thompson's mannerisms are based on occasional show guest Gene Lasker, a Tampa sprint car driver.