Regan Smith still second in standings, but farther back after Kansas
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KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A day that began on a difficult note didn’t get any better for NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Regan Smith, and as a result the JR Motorsports driver lost ground to teammate Chase Elliott in the battle for the series championship.
Smith crashed in qualifying Saturday morning, the team rolled out a backup car and then issues throughout the Kansas Lottery 300 left the 31-year-old 22nd at the finish, eight laps down to race-winner Kyle Busch.
With Elliott finishing 10th, Smith saw what had been a 26-point gap grow to 38 with just four races remaining.
“It really started yesterday,” Smith said of his team’s struggles at the 1.5-mile track. “We just didn’t have the speed we wanted so we kind of changed a lot of stuff to go out and qualify this morning.”
Smith said the car was “really loose” in the first qualifying session, and then in the second “I backed into the wall.”
“Anytime you do that,” he added, “you’ve got to roll (out) a backup car two hours before the race (and) you really have to expect anything to happen.”
Smith made steady progress in the early stages of the race, taking advantage of numerous cautions to drop on to pit road and allow his team to make adjustments.
By Lap 53, he was running inside the top 15. But as the race headed into its final 50 laps, a broken sway arm brought him to pit road for extended repairs.
“My guys did a great job, just getting the car … to where we could get to the grid with it, much less being competitive there for the first stages of the race,” Smith said. “It was kind of what we anticipated for the day.
“Disappointing, you know, it’s obviously disappointing.”
Although he extended his points lead, Elliott, one of seven Sunoco Rookie of the Year contenders in the field, wasn’t pleased with his result, either.
“We really struggled, and there’s no excuse for that so we just had a bad day today,” the 18-year-old said. “Regardless of what the points situation looks like, this was not the performance we were hoping for today. I’m bummed about it.”
Kevin Harvick trailed Busch across the line, followed by Ryan Blaney and Paul Menard. Fifth-place rookie Ty Dillon was the highest finishing series regular.
While Smith trails Elliott by 38, Dillon managed to close to within two of Smith (1,030-1,028) for the No. 2 spot.
Brian Scott, who finished ninth, is fourth (-57) while Elliott Sadler, seventh on the day, is fifth (-60).
“I thought we were going to be a little farther inside the top 10 there towards the end of the race and got to racing with those guys and just kind of made a mistake and got us put back,” Elliott said. “So we’ll try to be better for Charlotte and move on.”
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