Taking Farm American to the Heartland, Smith Aiming for More Consistency, Better Results
DENVER, Colo. (Oct. 5, 2011) — Regan Smith’s goal for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway is not only to better a string of successful finishes, but also to promote the Farm American program, which will once again be showcased on his No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet.
The race in America’s Heartland is a fitting place for Smith and Furniture Row Racing to support Farm American, which is an effort to bring awareness to the importance of keeping America’s food supply produced in the United States.
Smith, who has four consecutive top-20 finishes, including a 10th at New Hampshire two weeks ago, said the recent performances are close to what the single-car team wants to accomplish in the closing races of the 2011 season.
“While the 12 Chase drivers are concentrating on winning a championship, our focus is to get a jump on the 2012 season,” said Smith. “We’ve been making steady improvement, but one thing that we need to improve upon is consistency. So far, we’re making progress in that area and we need to know that we can be consistent heading into 2012.”
Smith’s finishes in the past four races were: 18th (Richmond), 17th (Chicago), 10th (New Hampshire) and 17th (Dover).
Though he’s been consistent, Smith would like to see better results in his No. 78 Furniture Chevrolet .
“We really would like to have more top 10s before the season comes to a close,” said Smith, whose 2011 record includes one win, two top-fives and five top-10s. “Kansas is a mile-and-a-half track and we like the intermediate venues, but need to have better results on them.
“Kansas would be a great place to step it up, especially with having Farm American on the car. Furniture Row Racing has been utilizing its race team to connect agriculture messaging to NASCAR fans. We want our agriculture jobs and food supply to remain here in the U.S.”
In his most recent trip to Kansas Speedway for the June Cup race, Smith qualified 11th and was running in the top-15 before a pit-road miscue sent him to the back of the field and a 24th-place finish.
“We proved we can qualify strong and run well at Kansas,” explained Smith. “We just need to avoid mistakes and mechanical issues.”
