Smith Qualifies 26th in California

October 9, 2009

FONTANA, Calif. (Oct. 9, 2009) -- Regan Smith will start 26th in Sunday's Pepsi 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race here at Auto Club Speedway.

In Friday's qualifying session, Smith's No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet Impala SS toured the 2.0-mile oval in 39.856 seconds at 180.650 miles per hour.

"We had a good day with our Furniture Row Chevy," said Smith. "Maybe we could have had a quicker qualifying lap, but overall it wasn't that bad. There's so much pressure to qualify when you're not in the top 35. Right now we're feeling upbeat and looking forward to get our car dialed in for Sunday during tomorrow's practices."

Smith has qualified in 15 of the 16 races that Furniture Row Racing has entered this season.

The pole winner was Denny Hamlin (183.870 mph). Rounding out the top-five in order were: Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson, Juan Pablo Montoya and Martin Truex Jr.

Sunday's race will be televised on ABC, beginning with a prerace show at 12:30 p.m. MT (11:30 a.m. local time).

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