Those who know doorslammer icon Rickie Smith believe there's a Geico commercial in his future.

You know that kind which suggests, "If you're Rickie Smith you make the improbable probable, it's just what you do."

To set the stage for this slogan, the multi-time Pro Modified and mountain motor Pro Stock champion can now add to his list of unlikely victories one which includes a brand new Jerry Bickel Camaro with only four runs on it equipped with a new transmission combination with less than ten test hits to the finish line.

Oh, that drag racer they call Trickie Rickie always has an Ace up his sleeve. He clearly knew when to hold his cards, and when to fold them last month at the E3 Spark Plugs Pro Mod season-opener in Gainesville, Fla.

No poker face necessary; just a lot of elbow grease.

"A lot of hard work," Smith explained as he drove his rig to test ahead of this weekend's NHRA Springnationals outside of Houston, Texas, the second-stop on the 12-race schedule. "A lot of thinking, a lot of nights laying and just rolling in the bed, you know what I mean? I live and breathe and eat this stuff, and I have for 40-some years. Sometimes you’ve got to be a little lucky. We didn’t run real fast down there, but we just went up and down the race track. That was kind of my plan, my plan wasn’t really thinking I was going to win the race, but that worked out okay too."

Not many racers plan to win a race with a car holding only four launches on the imaginary odometer either.

"I’ve never used the new car blues as an excuse," Smith admitted. "I’ve brought brand new cars out plenty of times, made a couple check out passes. When I won Indy last time, I brought a car down that only had four runs on it. Brand new went to Indy with it and won the race.

"Bickel’s got good cars and when you run these things as long as I have, you kind of know where they’re at. The changes we make are minor, so it’s pretty much, the car is fine, it’s usually going to be an electrical problem, not really the guy wiring it, it just going to be an electrical component that will get you if it does.

"Brand new stuff is not always good. That’s the thing you have to watch with a new car is just make sure that the new components, electrical components, are good and don’t cause you a lot of trouble before you get there."

"To me basically if it wasn’t for the smell, I wouldn’t know it was a different car. You know, they’ve got pictures of my cars and every gauge, every switch, everything I’ve got for the last six years anyway, has been identical. So that way when I get in the car, I don’t really know I’m in a different car other than you smell that new paint."

The car is fine but running the lock-up converter, Smith admits, has been the devil. Smith has never been a fan of automatics, dating back to the days when he ran a Ford Maverick in IHRA Super Mod; a class he was dominated so much the sanctioning body canceled the class.

"I thought we’d run three to five hundredths quicker with that lockup compared to the clutch," Smith said. "Well, basically what I was comparing to also was a little false information myself. When I was doing all the testing, I was doing PDRA prepared tracks, a lot of times at night, and you’re not going to race on that in NHRA. So as of right now, at Gainesville, I could have run .79, .80 with a clutch car down there.

Smith understands even though he ran in the 5.60s, to run quicker the clutch might be the key.

"I told Brandon [Switzer], I said, ‘Brandon, I run just as fast, I did here last year with the clutch. But I’ll be two or three better on the tree with the button," Smith admitted. "So I’m still trying to work with this automatic. Hopefully, we can find a hundredth or two in it during the day. But the problem is, you’re not going to run this automatic as fast as you think because of the PDRA stuff because you run during the daytime. The track’s always a lot hotter, a lot greasier, and that’s why you see them struggle so bad over in PDRA during the day.

"Right now clutch is in the trailer; bell housing is in the trailer."

Smith is testing the clutch today at the Texas Motorplex.

"You’ve got to use the quicker horse in front of the carriage before you go," Smith explained. "I just want to be prepared either way when I get to one of these tracks. Clutch or automatic and then it’s up to the little fat driver to figure out how he’s going to get a reaction time."

Smith understands with the lock-up converter he's run with the quickest nitrous time in the quarter-mile, and with this fact it might be hard to convince the rulemakers he's got a donkey instead of a thoroughbred.

"When I run them 5.60’s, the track was 92 degrees, and the air was 700 feet, and blah, blah, blah, you’re not going to race in them kind of conditions in NHRA," Smith said. "You’re not going to see that, not enough. If we run a lucky track somewhere, you might see a nitrous car be able to run a 5.72, 5.73, but that’ll be it. You’re not going to see no .60’s in NHRA out of the nitrous car because it’s just not going to happen."

Those who know Smith aren't fooled.

If you're Rickie Smith, you're tricky. It's just what you do.