Smith Qualifies 7th for Chicagoland Speedway Race

September 15, 2012

For the second straight week and eighth time this season Regan Smith posted a top-10 qualifying effort. The Furniture Row Racing driver was the seventh fastest in Saturday's time trials at Chicagoland Speedway and will start Sunday's Geico 400 Sprint Cup Series race from the inside of Row 4.

Smith, who qualified third last week in Richmond, covered Chicagoland's 1.5-mile oval in 29.678 seconds at 181.953 miles per hour.  He was one of four non-Chase drivers to qualify in the top-10. 

"I went out early and wasn't sure how our time was going to hold up," said Smith, who was the sixth driver to take a qualifying lap. "But it did pretty well. It's always my goal to go after the pole and the past few weeks the Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet recorded strong qualifying runs. Now we have to go out there on race day and take advantage of our qualifying effort."

The pole winner was Jimmie Johnson (29.530 at 182.865). Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Aric Almirola, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne, Smith, Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer and Joey Logano. 

Sunday's Geico 400 will be televised on ESPN, beginning with a 60-minute prerace show at 11 a.m. MT (Noon local time -- CT, 1 p.m. ET).