Four drivers and fans have chances to win $100,000
MORE: How Dash 4 Cash works; enter now!
CONCORD, N.C. — Regan Smith said he didn’t realize until Friday that Saturday’s Hisense 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway was the qualifier for the NASCAR XFINITY Series’ Dash 4 Cash Sweepstakes.
But on Saturday in the driver’s meeting he tapped Jason Burdett, crew chief of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, on the shoulder and said, “Hey, you know this is the Dash 4 Cash race and we need to be good today.”
The No. 7 remained steady and in the top 10 for the majority of the race, but what made Saturday good was a late pit stop that propelled Smith to a fourth-place finish, his best at Charlotte.
Smith led a group of Dash 4 Cash qualifiers that included Darrell Wallace Jr. (fifth place), Daniel Suarez (sixth) and Ty Dillon (seventh) in a race won by Austin Dillon.
The best finisher among the four in next week’s Buckle Up presented by Click it or Ticket 200
at Dover International Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX) will take home $100,000 and advance to the next round of the Dash 4 Cash.
For Wallace, the fifth-place finish at Charlotte was a career best in his young XFINITY Series career and came on the heels of a sixth-place showing at Iowa. Wallace also finished sixth at Texas earlier this season, and the driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford said he’s building some momentum.
“This is a confidence booster for all of my guys,” Wallace said. “We just have to clean up ourselves on pit road. That’s been a struggle for us these last couple races, but we’ve been able to manage a couple spots on restarts and come away with our first top-five in the series. … This is where we need to be. We’re setting up ship for late in the season.”
As for the immediate future, Wallace said he needed to learn how to translate qualifying success at Dover International Speedway into a race win. In 2012, Wallace won the pole in the fall XFINITY race at Dover only to finish 12th. He also won a pole there in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in the spring of 2013 but finished 10th.
“Dover has been a very successful track for me,” Wallace said. “It would be nice if (the Dash 4 Cash) paid for the pole there because I’m pretty good at qualifying there. I haven’t got the finishes I wanted, but I’m excited to be in the XFINITY Series and part of the Dash 4 Cash Series, so I’m glad to be one of the four.”
Wallace and fellow rookie Suarez will mix it up with Smith and Dillon, who are veterans of the Dash 4 Cash battles — with Dillon winning a Dash 4 Cash race last year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In addition to Dover and Indianapolis, the Dash 4 Cash will take place at Bristol Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway this year.
Suarez, who qualified 19th for Saturday’s race in Charlotte, charged through the field early and maintained a top-10 position for the second half of the race. Suarez’s sixth-place finish in his first race at CMS was his fourth top 10 of the season.
“We had a hard time in qualifying — maybe one of my worst qualifying runs of the year at 19th,” Suarez said. “All these guys, they don’t know how to give up and that’s something that is really good, and I’m learning to be just like that as well.”
And like Smith, Suarez was pleasantly surprised that Saturday marked the beginning of the Dash 4 Cash.
“That’s cool and something new actually,” Suarez said. “I saw the Dash 4 Cash, and I don’t know exactly how it works or anything, but I’m really proud to be part of this and something new for me.”