Q. You perform on the big stage. Did it again here today. Talk about your run.
REGAN SMITH: We just got to figure out how to perform on the rest of the stages, we’ll be in shape.
The Chevy was good today. It was probably a top‑10 car, ninth or 10th place car. Didn’t have track position for a long time. When the 51 car wrecked, played our hand for us, didn’t have a choice but to come in and clean the grill off because we were overheating right away almost immediately. Cleaned the grill off, looked at the fuel strategy, and said, you know what, let’s top it off. We had nothing to lose. We got to start in the back of the pack anyway.
They kept pulling me back, pulling me back about saving fuel. We’ll see how much is left in the tank after all is said and done. I felt like I had a little bit to go a bit further.
But certainly can’t be disappointed with third, and in particular when somebody like Paul wins, I have very many close friends on this circuit, that’s one of them. He was at my victory celebration; I plan on being at his tonight or tomorrow or whenever it is.
Q. You talked a little bit before you came in about the fuel mileage races, absolutely hating them. Could you expand on that a little bit.
REGAN SMITH: I think it’s pretty simple. I hate ‘em. I don’t care I don’t think they’re fun racing. I don’t think there’s anything good about them. I’m certainly sure there’s cars that ran up front, led a lot of laps, that ended up 10th or 12th. I don’t know who was up front most today, I was just worrying about our race and what we had to do to get track position.
It’s a product of how we’re racing right now. I think every week we know it’s going to be a fuel mileage race and we try to plan for that, to work around it accordingly.
That’s what we’re doing. Even when it’s races that aren’t necessarily fuel mileage races, they still play a part in how much track position you can get, who can pit sooner so you have that track position.
It’s here to stay. It’s not going to go away. We’ll learn to like it and to adjust to it. I guess I should be happy for it today because we had a good day and Paul won. So, you know, I’ll take back that statement. I love fuel mileage races right now (laughter).
Q. You won the Southern 500. Running top three at Indianapolis. I know you’re kind of busy in the car, but did you let your mind wander to think you might be able to win Indy and Darlington the same year?
REGAN SMITH: Hell, yeah, I did. I saw Jamie do it last year with the Brickyard and the 500. I certainly thought we had a shot to do that.
The thing that was going to hurt us, if I would have pushed a couple laps earlier to catch the lead pack, we would have had to pass four guys. If I would have pushed a little bit sooner to do that, we would have used up too much fuel, maybe run out. If we wait till they go, we’re going to have that same gap no matter what. Unless I got the most incredible restart in the world, passed 10 cars right away, that was what we were going to have to do today, accept a third‑place finish and be happy with it.
We tried doing this at Loudon. Had a good car. Did the fuel mileage there, ran out way short. So this meant a lot to me to be able to save it and actually be able to make it to the end of this one.
Q. Can you talk about the balance that you’ve got to strike over the next six races?
REGAN SMITH: Well, from my team’s standpoint, I don’t think we’re looking at the top 20 right now. We’d have to win out at this point to have a shot at getting back up there. Certainly we’d love to do that. The reality is, this is such a tough series, it’s going to be really hard to do.
We’re going to focus on winning races. If it puts us in position to get top fives, great. If we can sneak up there and maybe get top 20, and the right things play out, then cool. If not, we’re working hard to make sure we can do this every week next year and this just isn’t a thing we did a few times this year.
Q. Regan, you mentioned how thrilled you were that if you couldn’t win it, that Paul won it. What do you think it means to his dad in particular to put so much into winning here?
REGAN SMITH: Well, Jeff can probably speak better to that than I can, being from Indiana, being up here as much as he was. I just know what it means to Paul. I know how hard he’s worked. One of the really good close friends that I have on this circuit, always go to if I have a question or need something.
He always talks about coming up here. He always talks about how much he loves this place. I know if he had to highlight one race to get his first win, I’m sure he’ll tell you in a minute he couldn’t be happier.
It’s cool. You only get one chance to get your first win. It’s a special thing, especially when you do it here.
Q. Regan, you mentioned Paul being one of your closest friends out here. How did that develop?
REGAN SMITH: I think the same thing, we came into the circuit the same time, around each other a lot, a lot of different appearance, stuff like that. You start seeing guys more and more, get comfortable with them, just like that.
We’re both kind of similar personalities, quiet, a little bit shy if you want to call it that, keep to ourselves a little bit.
But he’s been knocking on the door for a while. Had some really strong racecars. Certainly happy for him.
Q. Regan, we know how you feel about Paul and the friendship you have. Now we know what Jeff thinks. Among other drivers, do you sense that a lot of them echo Jeff’s feelings about Paul, that he has a lot of respect?
REGAN SMITH: Yeah, I think so. A lot of people know what the Menard’s name has meant to racing, what the family meant to racing. Certainly I didn’t come to this place as a kid and didn’t have my roots around this track, and he did, like Jeff said.
The other thing is Menard has built a lot of engines and cars to bring to the 500 year after year. I think pretty much everything has been said. It’s just really cool for him to do that deal, to win here.
Part of me’s happy, part of me’s mad. Maybe these two could have run into each other and then I could have won this thing. That’s what I was hoping for. Afterwards I said, That’s okay (laughter).
Q. Regan, after winning Darlington, everybody was saying that the wins may start to pile up for you. While wins haven’t come, you’ve had four top 10s this year. Finishing third here is a big deal. Is this further validating your career and your team’s ideology being based out of Denver and proving that model can work for you guys?
REGAN SMITH: I think we’re going to continue to prove that that model can work. It’s a model nobody else has tried in a long time. For the longest time, everybody thought you had to move to the Charlotte area to race. We’re trying to dispel that theory.
I think the times have allowed us to do that, technology has allowed us to do that. We can be on a live active database back to North Carolina and see different things going on from Denver also. Certainly with some of the teams having the troubles they’ve had in the past years, we’ve been able to get really good people to complement the people we already got in Denver.
| 
|