Smith Qualifies 16th in Homestead

November 19, 2011

Regan Smith will start 16th in Sunday’s Ford 400, the final NASCAR Sprint Cup race of the season.

In Saturday afternoon’s time trials at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Smith’s No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet toured the 1.5-mile oval in 31.156 seconds at 173.321 miles per hour. He will start on the outside of Row 8, alongside Tony Stewart, who is contending for the season championship.

“Our Furniture Row Racing team did a good job today,” said Smith. “We had a good practice session and pulled off a decent starting position for tomorrow’s race. I was a tick free during the qualifying run, but overall it was a solid lap. We sure want to close out this season with a strong run. It’s been a season of firsts for us and we would like to go into the offseason with added momentum.”

The pole winner was Carl Edwards (175.467 mph). Rounding out the top-five in order were: Martin Truex Jr., Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski.

Sunday’s Ford 400 will be televised on ESPN, 1 p.m. MT (3 p.m. ET). A 60-minute prerace show will air on ESPN2 at noon MT (2 p.m. ET).

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