Regan Smith added his name to the star-studded record book of winners of the prestigious Southern 500 at historic Darlington Raceway.
Taking the lead with 10 laps remaining as the result of a gutsy pit call by crew chief Pete Rondeau when the other leaders pitted, the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet powered away from the field on not one, but two restarts, to claim his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory. He led once for a total of 11 laps.
“We’re not supposed to win this thing,” said Smith, who became the first first-time winner in NASCAR’s premier series at Darlington since Lake Speed in 1988.
“Well, at least you picked an easy one, bud,” crew chief Pete Rondeau said.
Carl Edwards finishes second followed by Brad Keselowski who finished third (his first top five at Penske Racing), followed by Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman. Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top 10.
REGAN SMITH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER: ON THE VICTORY:
“I don’t really know how to put it in words right now. It is so surreal right now. We had a good car all night and we had to work for a ways back. We kept working on it and these guys kept digging and digging and digging. We got track position. It was good out front with clean air. I hit the wall on the white-flag lap but the chances of me checking up there were about zero. I could have torn the right front off and kept going. Proud of this team. Furniture Row. I don’t think anybody realizes how much work has gone into getting this program where it is out of Colorado. Joe Garone, Barney Visser, all of them. Barney has put a huge, huge investment into NASCAR into this team. I can’t be more proud to be driving it. Man, we are in the All Star race! We have all kinds of cool stuff going on. Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms. My Mom isn’t here tonight, She is in Tuscaloosa (Alabama) helping with some of the recovery efforts with animals and things like that. But we are going to have one hell of a party tonight.”
CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU?
“No, I really can’t. First and foremost to all the Moms out there, Happy Mother’s Day. My Mom comes to every race that I run and she missed this one. She’s in Tuscaloosa, Alabama saving the animals. Mom, hi, I love you. Sorry you missed this one. Gotta thank the fans, Furniture Row. These guys have stuck behind me three yers now. We’ve had some major ups and major downs, I think this will be classified as a major up for sure. The car was good all night we just never had track position. The opportunity showed up to stay out there, Pete (Rondeau, crew chief) made a great pit call. I was going to be mad if he didn’t say that but I was going to do what he told me to do and it worked out. We’re in the All Star race. There’s so much cool stuff going on right now. I had to get my composure, actually just right now I did. We’ve got a neat trophy now. Legends win this race, I’m not supposed to win this race. I’ve never even had a top five. I guess that shows in this series, anybody can win on any given Sunday.”
FIN CAR DRIVER MAKE 1 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet 2 99 Carl Edwards Ford 3 2 Brad Keselowski Dodge 4 4 Kasey Kahne Toyota 5 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 6 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 7 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 8 16 Greg Biffle Ford 9 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 10 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 11 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 12 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 13 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford 14 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 15 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 16 0 David Reutimann Toyota 17 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 18 47 Bobby Labonte Toyota 19 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet 20 43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford 21 6 David Ragan Ford 22 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet 23 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet 24 36 Dave Blaney Chevrolet 25 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 26 38 Travis Kvapil Ford 27 22 Kurt Busch Dodge 28 32 Ken Schrader Ford 29 9 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 30 13 Casey Mears Toyota 31 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 32 34 David Gilliland Ford 33 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 34 83 Brian Vickers Toyota 35 20 Joey Logano Toyota 36 37 Tony Raines Ford 37 7 Robby Gordon Dodge 38 150 T.J. Bell Toyota 39 46 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 40 60 Mike Skinner Toyota 41 30 David Stremme Chevrolet 42 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota 43 66 Michael McDowell Toyota
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