NASCAR driver Regan Smith, who heads the Denver-based Furniture Row team’s No. 78 car, is writing a daily diary exclusively for The Denver Post about the Daytona 500 this week.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A little more than 24 hours ago, I was basking in the glow of a race well run. The Furniture Row Chevrolet had just crossed the line second to Kurt Busch in the first of two qualifying races, and it was a great feeling.
Now, if you can believe it, the hard part starts.
Running that well in a qualifying race is a good deal, because it’s Daytona and everyone is watching. But they don’t pay points for the qualifying races. They pay points for the Daytona 500 on Sunday, and if you run well Thursday but not Sunday, then what do you have?
Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to have people come up and tell you what a great run it was and how good you looked. But you have to keep it in perspective and realize that the bigger picture is still the 500.
Last night, Kurt Busch and I had an appearance on the same radio show, and when I got there, we started joking around and he called me his “teammate for a day.” That might have been true, and it worked out well, but it’s no guarantee that we’ll do that Sunday during the 500. I’d like to, but it’s not a done deal.
Furniture Row Racing is a single-car team. We don’t have two or three cars out there that are going to want to work with us and gang up on some of the other big teams. We have great engines from Earnhardt Childress Racing and great technology partners at Richard Childress Racing, but I haven’t worked with any of those guys since we’ve been at Daytona.
We’re going to have to find a dancing partner, and it could be Kurt, it could be somebody else. All that matters is going to the front and making the right moves at the right time.
Though we didn’t practice Friday and never intended to, I still had a busy day. I had an early morning (7:15 a.m.) live radio appearance at the track followed by a charity Daytona fishing tournament at Lake Lloyd, which is inside the speedway.
Later in the day I went to the Fan Deck for an appearance on satellite radio with car owner Chip Ganassi, legendary NASCAR driver Buddy Baker and Danny “Chocolate” Myers, the gas man on the late Dale Earnhardt’s team.
We have one more day before the big show. We’re ready, and we’ll make some final adjustments to make sure our No. 78 Chevy is dialed in for the Daytona 500.
