Numbers abound in Regan Smith’s NASCAR season this year. For a simple stock car race on four tires with four turns, something more mathematical is slinging him along.
Smith, who races for Denver’s Furniture Row Racing team, holds NASCAR’s current longest active streak of not crashing. Through his entire three-year career, Smith’s engine was still running when he crossed the finish line in all 51 races he started.
Smith’s streak is a considerable feat in a series that so often sees cars trading paint and busting bumpers.
He’ll seek to extend that streak Sunday in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Smith will have to qualify during races Saturday morning. The Sunday race starts at noon, airing on ESPN.
Smith, in the No. 78 car, is maximizing his ride. His team entered the Sprint Cup season planning on a part-time schedule of 12 races, just one-third of the full 36-race slate. But he has exceeded expectations, so the team bumped up his entries to 16, including the Aug. 22 race at Bristol.
At 38th in the season points standings, Smith is the highest-ranked driver with fewer than 17 starts. Just four of the 37 drivers ahead of him have started in fewer than the full 19 races.
In his 10 races this season, Smith’s average starting position is 29.8. But he has finished at an average of 22.9, attesting to his ability to keep off the wall and away from the wrecker.
“Our finishes haven’t been that bad, but we know they could have been better,” Smith said in a team-released statement.
At Indy, Smith would likely go against last year’s winner Jimmie Johnson, who has two wins at the Brickyard in the past three years.
Indiana native Tony Stewart, who leads the season standings, won at Indy in 2005 and 2007, and a return to the winner’s circle this weekend would put him in a prime position with six races to go before the Chase.
AROUND TOWN
Big Apple invasion.
Denver will be in a New York state of mind this weekend when two Empire State teams travel to the Centennial State for games.
The Rapids host the New York Red Bulls on Saturday at DSG Park for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff. Colorado will be looking to gain ground against the East’s last-place team, which is led by Mike Petke and Juan Pablo Angel. The game will be followed by a fireworks display rescheduled from July 4.
Across town on Saturday, the Denver Outlaws of Major League Lacrosse host the Long Island Lizards in their final home game of the season. Faceoff is at 7 p.m. The teams played a fight-filled game in their previous matchup last month, won by the Outlaws.
STAY ON THE COUCH
Champagne on Champs-Elysees.
The final three stages of the Tour de France will decide the winner by Sunday’s finish line. But between now and then, things could get wild.
Greg LeMond erased a 50-second deficit on the final stage in 1989 to win the Tour. So Alberto Contador’s 4-minute, 11-second lead with three stages left isn’t a lock for the title.
Lance Armstrong is 5:25 behind in third place and Christian Vande Velde, of Boulder-based team Garmin- Slipstream, is 10:08 back heading into today.
The great race will conclude Sunday in a stage from Montereau- Fault-Yonne to Paris’ finish line at the Champs-Elysees. The final stage airs live on Versus from 5:30-10 a.m. and will replay the rest of the day.
GET OFF THE COUCH
Watch for human wheelbarrows.
A kind of circus carnival on wheels, the New Belgium Urban Assault Ride on Sunday will careen racers through Denver in an obstacle course of rarely seen trouble.
The ride, starting at 9 a.m., will take two-person teams to Elitch Gardens, out to Wheat Ridge and back to LoDo to compete in jousting and human wheelbarrow competitions.
And to the winner goes the spoils: two new cruiser bikes.
Check to register. Today is the deadline.
Runners will toil in the Classic 10K Race in Colorado Springs on Saturday. The 7 a.m. start time will lead to one of the fastest 10K’s in the state, according to organizers. The course will follow the Pikes Peak Greenway.
Check for info.
WHAT WE’D LIKE TO SEE
Division doldrums for Rocks.
A by-product of the Rockies’ midseason resurgence as the wild-card leaders in the National League is the suddenly high-stakes nature of their divisional series.
When the Rockies, in second place in the NL West, host third-place San Francisco for a three-game series starting tonight, Colorado will bring with it the worst divisional record in the West.
The Rockies (18-23) are tied in intra-division games with sad-sack Arizona. The Giants (18-17) and Dodgers (30-12) are the only teams with winning records in NL West games.
The Rockies-Giants weekend series concludes Sunday at 1:10 p.m., with San Francisco’s Ryan Sadowski going against Aaron Cook.
