LONG POND, Pa. (June 12, 2011) — The Furniture Row Racing team continues to make steady gains as Regan Smith brought home a 15th-place finish in Sunday’s 5-Hour Energy Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway.
The result was Smith’s fifth top-15 of the season and his best finish in only six career starts at the Pocono track, known as the Tricky Triangle.
Smith, who posted a strong fifth-place qualifying effort, rode in the top-10 early in the 200-lap, 500-mile event. But as the race wore on, he experienced handling issues, which dropped him to mid-pack as he maneuvered his way through the three challenging corners.
“We might have been a little better than 15th, but overall that’s pretty much what our Furniture Row Chevrolet had today,” said Smith. “We lost some track position early, but thanks to our pit crew we managed to make a pretty good gain late in the race. This is a challenging track and each time I come back here I feel more comfortable about figuring out this place.”
Smith gained two spots in the driver point standings and now sits in 27th place after 14 of 36 races completed.
“We’re not where we want to be in points and we’re going to keep battling until we get there,” stated Smith. “You know, we’re just okay with top-15s. We really want those top-10s and top-fives. Another win would be great too. We’ve been a little inconsistent lately and hopefully today’s result will trigger a streak of solid finishes for our Furniture Row team.”
The race winner was Jeff Gordon. Rounding out the top-five in order were: Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick.
The next Cup race is this coming Sunday (June 19) at Michigan International Speedway.
