Regan Smith
No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet
Team: Furniture Row Racing
Crew Chief: Pete Rondeau
2011 Stats
Wins: 1
Top-5s: 2
Top-10s: 5
Poles: 0
DNF: 4
Average Start: 14.8
Average Finish: 21.5
Races Led: 6
Laps Led: 36
% Laps Completed: 92.6%
Points Finish: 26th
2011 in a Nutshell
With top-10 finishes in the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and the Brickyard 400, NASCAR’s favorite underdog driver took his turn in the spotlight in 2011. But it was in the Southern 500, the circuit’s oldest race, where Regan Smith showed he had the chops to compete with the sport’s best. On old tires, Smith fended off Carl Edwards, who had fresh rubber and a faster car, and scored he and his team’s first Sprint Cup victory.
Reasons to Believe
Technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing ensures the team isn’t lacking on the equipment side of things … Smith is a sneaky good qualifier with a better average starting position last year than a host of drivers including Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart … Has improved his average finishing position each year he’s been in Cup … The organization knows how to maximize its small budget to the fullest … Last year’s win wasn’t just them catching lightning in a bottle.
Reasons to Doubt
Over the course of a full season, single-car teams simply can’t compete with any regularity with the bigger, deeper and better financed teams … Smith in 131 Cup starts has just five finishes inside the top-10 … This team still has major issues with consistency … The 36 laps Smith led last year was the sixth fewest among drivers who started all 36 races … Although it’s impressive what this team has accomplished, you get the feeling that they’ve hit the proverbial ceiling on just how competitive they can be week in and week out … The team’s Denver location makes it hard to attract quality people.
Area of Strength: Restrictor-plate tracks
In large part due to their alliance with Richard Childress Racing which supplies the single-car effort with engines and chassis’, Furniture Row Racing has proven to be a player anytime the series rolls into Daytona or Talladega. In 2011, Smith nearly won the Daytona 500 before fading back to seventh and led laps in three of the four plate events. If this team is going to win again this coming season, the odds are high it will be on a track where NASCAR restricts the airflow to the engine.
Area of Weakness: Consistency
While 2011 may have had plenty of high-water marks for Regan Smith, the fact is there were simply too many weeks where he was a nonfactor. If the native of Cato, N.Y., is to take the next step in his career, he’s going to have to be more consistent and start stringing together more finishes inside the top-15. Not once last year did he have consecutive races where he finished 15th or better, and even more telling, is the 10 finishes he posted of 30th or worse. No matter how good you are, you’re not going to finish 20th in points, let alone contend for a spot in the Chase, by throwing that many points out the window 10 times a year.
Best-case Scenario For 2012
Using last year as a launching point, Regan Smith again finds Victory Lane, finds the consistency he’s been lacking, finishes top-20 in points and continues to show why he deserves a ride with a top team.
Worst-case Scenario For 2012
2011 proves to be nothing more than a fluke and this team takes a big step back from where they were a year ago. And at the end of the season, Regan Smith leaves for greener pastures.
In Their Words
“We sat here last year talking to everyone and I said I felt like this team could win a race. Some of you agreed with me and some of you looked at me like I had a third eye. But, at the end of day, I truly believed that. My win at Darlington helped elevate everyone’s confidence and we will continue to build on that success in 2012.”
–Regan Smith
Predicted Number of Wins: 0
The Racing Geek’s Final Thought
Regan Smith is as nice a guy as you’ll find in the garage, and what team owner Barney Visser has done in putting together Furniture Row Racing should be commended. That being said, it’s hard to fathom them being much better than they were last season.
What you can expect out of this bunch in 2012 is some weeks where they’re contenders, other weeks where they’re out to lunch, and a lot weeks where they’re just so-so. Add it all up and a 25th place finish in the yearend standings seems about right.