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Sprint Cup
CUP: Smith Riding Rocky Mountain High
Darlington winner buys a place in Denver…
Regan Smith scored an improbable win earlier this season at Darlington Raceway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
After Regan Smith won the Showtime Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, he knew the questions would be coming.
Smith already had established himself as an up-and-coming driver, but his win at one of NASCAR’s toughest tracks with a team not on the level of the sport’s ruling organizations added significantly to his resume.
Would he leap at the first offer to move on to a team with more resources, better sponsorship and bigger potential?
Part of that question was answered last week. Smith put his signature on the raft of documents one must sign to close on the purchase of a house – and this one is near Denver, Colo., home of the Furniture Row Racing team.
The fact that Smith is moving his official residence to Denver doesn’t mean that he’s committing to drive for Furniture Row forever, of course, but it does underline his allegiance to a team that put him in position to score a win that many drivers covet.
“These guys have had my back,” Smith said. “Likewise, I’ve got theirs. I think that’s the best way I can put that. Stuff is always going to be said, and there are rumors throughout the garage. But this team has stuck behind me. The least I can do is repay them.”
The Darlington win gave the team a huge boost, he said.
“Donnie Allison grabbed me the other day and said, ‘Hey, I tried winning that thing, and I had it won five years and wound up third or fourth or whatever,’” Smith said. “‘And here you did it, and that’s awesome. If I could win one race, that’s the one.’
“That was a good feeling. It’s just a very big feeling of pride to win at a track like that.
“As a team, our expectations are higher, so if we’re having a bad day, we get moodier quicker, and there’s not anything wrong with that. We don’t want to be happy if we’re 20th on the board. It’s a sign that you’re having some success when you’re mad about stuff.”
Smith, who said he’ll retain a home in Charlotte, N.C., bought a house midway between the Furniture Row shops in Denver and the Rocky Mountain ski slopes. He skis and snowboards in the offseason.
“I like the mountains and the snow,” he said. “I get up on the mountain away from everything. I like the views and the attitude that comes along with all that. There were some really good deals on houses, so I thought it was the right time. It’s just a little place – nothing too special.”
Smith said he expects to be in Denver about half the year. His new place is a 45-minute drive from the shop and the slopes.
“We spend so much time out on the West Coast now, and at places like Kansas and Texas, that it’ll be a good spot,” he said. “And I can be around the guys at the shop a lot more.”
Smith finished eighth last week in Charlotte, scoring his third top 10 of the year. He expects better things.
“How do you validate the first win? You go get a second one,” he said.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
Smith already had established himself as an up-and-coming driver, but his win at one of NASCAR’s toughest tracks with a team not on the level of the sport’s ruling organizations added significantly to his resume.
Would he leap at the first offer to move on to a team with more resources, better sponsorship and bigger potential?
Part of that question was answered last week. Smith put his signature on the raft of documents one must sign to close on the purchase of a house – and this one is near Denver, Colo., home of the Furniture Row Racing team.
The fact that Smith is moving his official residence to Denver doesn’t mean that he’s committing to drive for Furniture Row forever, of course, but it does underline his allegiance to a team that put him in position to score a win that many drivers covet.
“These guys have had my back,” Smith said. “Likewise, I’ve got theirs. I think that’s the best way I can put that. Stuff is always going to be said, and there are rumors throughout the garage. But this team has stuck behind me. The least I can do is repay them.”
The Darlington win gave the team a huge boost, he said.
“Donnie Allison grabbed me the other day and said, ‘Hey, I tried winning that thing, and I had it won five years and wound up third or fourth or whatever,’” Smith said. “‘And here you did it, and that’s awesome. If I could win one race, that’s the one.’
“That was a good feeling. It’s just a very big feeling of pride to win at a track like that.
“As a team, our expectations are higher, so if we’re having a bad day, we get moodier quicker, and there’s not anything wrong with that. We don’t want to be happy if we’re 20th on the board. It’s a sign that you’re having some success when you’re mad about stuff.”
Smith, who said he’ll retain a home in Charlotte, N.C., bought a house midway between the Furniture Row shops in Denver and the Rocky Mountain ski slopes. He skis and snowboards in the offseason.
“I like the mountains and the snow,” he said. “I get up on the mountain away from everything. I like the views and the attitude that comes along with all that. There were some really good deals on houses, so I thought it was the right time. It’s just a little place – nothing too special.”
Smith said he expects to be in Denver about half the year. His new place is a 45-minute drive from the shop and the slopes.
“We spend so much time out on the West Coast now, and at places like Kansas and Texas, that it’ll be a good spot,” he said. “And I can be around the guys at the shop a lot more.”
Smith finished eighth last week in Charlotte, scoring his third top 10 of the year. He expects better things.
“How do you validate the first win? You go get a second one,” he said.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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