Smith Claims Another Top 10 Starting Position

May 25, 2012

Regan Smith will start 10th in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. 

Smith's performance in Thursday night's time trials was his third straight top-10 qualifying effort. He qualified ninth two weeks ago in Darlington and 10th last week in the Sprint All-Star Race. 

Smith's No. 78 Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet covered Charlotte's 1.5-mile oval in 28.353 seconds at 190.456 miles per hour. 

"It was a good lap -- we found some more speed and that's encouraging," said Smith. "This is a brand new Furniture Row/Farm American Chevy and everything is working very well, thanks to everybody back at the shop for building a fast race car. I am looking forward to Sunday night -- this is one of my favorite races of the season."

Aric Almirola captured the pole (192.940 mph). Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Marcos Ambrose, Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Mark Martin, Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Paul Menard and Smith. 

Sunday's 400-lap, 600-mile race -- NASCAR's longest of the season -- will be televised on FOX, beginning with a 30-minute prerace show at 3:30 p.m. MT (5:30 p.m. ET).