Smith Qualifies for Dover Sprint Cup Race

September 25, 2009

DOVER, Del. (Sept. 29, 2009) -- Regan Smith qualified his No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet for Sunday's AAA 400 Sprint Cup race at Dover International Speedway. He will start 33rd.

In Friday's time trials, Smith covered Dover's Monster Mile in 23.497 seconds at 153.211 miles per hour. He was the second fastest among the eight drivers who needed to qualify on time.

"We had a better car than 33rd -- I was a little conservative on the qualifying lap once the car twitched," said Smith. "The last thing I wanted was to put the car in the wall and not qualify for Sunday's race. There's a feeling of optimism around our camp. We had a good practice in race trim and the car even felt better today than it did during the spring race here when we finished 22nd."

This is the 14th time in 15th races that Smith and Furniture Row Racing team have qualified for the main event.

The pole winner was Jimmie Johnson (157.356 mph). Rounding out the top five in order were: Juan Pablo Montoya, Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle and David Reutimann.

Sunday's race will be televised on ABC, beginning with a prerace show at 11 a.m. MT (1 p.m. ET).

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