Tire gamble almost pans out for Smith at Fontana

FONTANA, Calif. -- With 12 laps remaining in Sunday's Pepsi Max 400 at Auto Club Speedway, Regan Smith had nobody between himself and the checkered flag, and for an instant, let his mind run wild.

A two-tire gamble by crew chief Pete Rondeau put Smith's No. 78 Chevrolet at the front of the field and next to Paul Menard -- who made a similar roll of the dice -- for a Lap 188 restart. And at the drop of the flag, Smith quickly disposed of Menard and had clear sailing down the backstretch.

Race Rewind

Regan Smith takes lead with two tires, equals best finish of 12th after fading in closing laps.

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"I went into [Turns] 3 and 4 and the car stuck really good and I was thinking, 'Man, that's the best it's stuck in a while. Maybe the clean air's going to be enough to do it for us,' " Smith said. "Then I went down into [Turns] 1 and 2 and I couldn't hold the bottom like I needed to. Once one guy went by me, I got tight and it compounds your problem."

Eventual winner Tony Stewart zoomed by Smith on the next lap before the two cars reached Turn 3 and, from that point on, Smith was hoping just to hold on for his first top-10 finish. It didn't happen, as Smith faded to 12th, but it was the team's best finish since the fourth race of the season, leaving Smith and the team smiling as they loaded the car onto the hauler.

"Pete Rondeau made a really good call," Smith said. "We had a good car early on and got back in dirty air and bad traffic. It's so tough back there. When we took the two tires, the car was really good up there. I was just lacking a little bit of grip to hold it for more than that one lap. To still maintain 12th was pretty good."

Rondeau's gamble could have really backfired had the final laps gone caution-free. But when David Ragan and Kurt Busch tangled with seven laps to go, the ensuing laps run under yellow allowed Smith to tie his career-best Cup finish. He also finished 12th in the July 2009 race at Daytona.

"That helped us," Smith said. "We were betting on some cautions. When we made our move, we knew we needed cautions to make it work and we got that one. It played out just like you draw it up."

Taking two tires instead of four at a track like Auto Club Speedway isn't recommended, but Rondeau picked a good time to pull it off successfully.

"It worked for us," Smith said. "It was the perfect circumstance to do it. I think [Menard] tried it, too. It just depends on if you can hold off the first wave of when they're coming and for how long."