Smith Qualifies 3rd in Richmond #NASCAR

September 7, 2012

Regan Smith powered his No. 78 Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet to a third-place qualifying effort and will start Saturday night's Sprint Cup race from the inside of Row 2.

In Friday afternoon's time trials at Richmond International Raceway, Smith covered the .75-mile oval in 21.275 seconds at 126.910 miles per hour.

Smith was the 23rd driver to take a qualifying lap and he held the provisional pole until Jeff Gordon, who was 36th in line, took the No. 1 spot, which was later claimed and won by Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Earnhardt's pole-winning run was 21.256 seconds at 127.023 mph. Following Earnhardt, Gordon and Smith in the top-10 were: Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski.

"I was really happy with the result, but to be honest I didn't get what I wanted on the second lap," said Smith, after qualifying in the top-10 for the seventh time this season. "This team has been working really hard and to have something good happen like today is a big lift for all of us. We've shown plenty of improvement in the past six weeks. We have a great starting spot for tomorrow night and we need to take advantage of that. I have a good feeling -- there's a lot of excitement on this team."

Saturday night's Federated Auto Parts 400 will be televised on ABC, beginning with a 30-minute prerace show at 5 p.m. MT (7 p.m. ET).