Regan Smith looking for a rebound at second Loudon race

DENVER, Colo. (Sept. 19, 2012) -- Regan Smith is looking to celebrate his birthday with a rebound weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, site of Sunday's Sylvania 300 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

Smith, who turns 29 on Sunday, would be the first to stand up and say the past two weekends -- at Richmond International Raceway and Chicagoland Speedway -- were sub-par results even though the Furniture Row Racing driver posted strong qualifying efforts of third and seventh, respectively.

Smith finished 24th in Richmond and 34th in Chicagoland. Handling was the culprit in Richmond and a mechanical problem forced him to retire from the race early at Chicagoland.

"We need to instill some fire into our team after mediocre outings the past two weeks," said Smith. "When you qualify in the top-10 you expect to bring home better finishes than what we had in Richmond and Chicago. Things just didn't go our way, but we know that New Hampshire can be a turnaround weekend for our Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet."

Smith notched his best result on New Hampshire's 1.058-mile oval in last year's fall race, posting a 10th-place finish.

"I always like going to New Hampshire," noted Smith. "This is a type of race track where most of us cut our teeth on. We had a pretty good run at New Hampshire last year with a top-10 finish."

With nine races remaining in the 2012 season and much of the focus on the Chase, Smith feels it's an important time of the year to make a move.

"If you can compete alongside of the Chase contenders that gives everyone a big lift," stated Smith. "We can do that, but we need to have a clean race in New Hampshire."

Source: Furniture Row Racing

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