RELATED: Watch Smith's late pass to steal the win from Tagliani at Mid-Ohio
LEXINGTON, Ohio -- Regan Smith ended a 52-race XFINITY Series winless streak in Saturday’s Nationwide Children's Hospital 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course -- but at what cost?
That's the question runner-up Alex Tagliani, who Smith moved out of the way coming around the final corner of the 2.4-mile road course, found himself asking after the race.
The No. 22 Team Penske driver, whose only scheduled XFINITY start this season came this weekend, felt that Smith's aggressive move was out of line based on how the two had raced throughout the event's 75 laps -- and it's something he won't forget.
"The pass I put on Regan early on, it took a lot of time to put that pass in because I know he's working for the championship and he was very vocal about what happened last weekend so he seemed to be very aggressive, too," Tagliani said after the race. "I'm a little guy, so I didn't want to get into a fist fight. Knowing what I know now, I probably would've done a little bit less of an in-between pass, and it's really unfortunate what happened at the end. Take your point and walk away happy, but to celebrate this way ... winning this way is not winning for me.
"From my perspective, there's going to be some bumpers. That's going to happen and I know that. The thing is, where I really don't appreciate is moving. I don't respect his win today. He didn't really try. He could've tried Turn 2 and put the fender on me and just moved me out of the way a little bit and get a run on the back straightaway. He could've bonsaied me going into Turn 4. He could've come out of 4 and just dove on the inside of (Turn 5). He could've done all kinds of things, but he never tried."
The "last weekend" that Tagliani refers to is the late-race fracas between Smith and Ty Dillon, who finished third at Mid-Ohio and sided with Tagliani in their joint post-race press conference, when the JR Motorsports driver vehemently disagreed with Dillon's move on him that left Smith with a 20th-place finish.
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Thus, it's interesting that the roles were nearly reversed, and Smith saw things in a different light.
To hear the two drivers each describe the final lap, it's like they weren't even at the same race.
"We took the white flag, I made an adjustment inside the car with something I can do," Smith said. "Went into Turn 1 and pretty much sailed it in there because I at least needed to close it up and make him nervous. As soon as I got on his bumper, I noticed him start to get a little more squirrelly, a little bit more trouble through the corners and that allowed me to stay with him that whole last lap. We went through Turns 9 and 10 and that allowed me to stay right on his back bumper and was pushing him through there and just letting him know that I was there and right on top of him. We went in the carousel and he went to play it cautious ... and I pretty much went the speed that I thought I needed to go, which was a little bit faster than the speed he thought he needed to go and just kind of pushed him up the race track a little bit. I hate doing that to him; he's raced me clean throughout the years ... these wins are hard to come by and it’s been a long time since I've had one. I was pretty hungry and after last week, I was even more hungry.
"The fact of the matter is, I moved him out of the way and he finished second. I didn't wreck him, I didn't spin him, I didn't do anything like that. Obviously, I don't expect him to be happy about that. I wouldn't be either. I've been on the receiving end of many of them here on these road courses. We had to take that opportunity."
While Tagliani likely won't see Smith on the track for at least the rest of the season -- he has no other scheduled XFINITY starts announced, and Smith's plans for next year are still up in the air -- this one is sure to sit heavy on his mind for some time.
He'll be waiting.
"I thought maybe it was a mistake on my part, to think that because I'd (raced him clean) early in the race, he was going to race me clean until the end. I was unprepared," Tagliani said.
"Next time I will be prepared."