DARLINGTON, S.C. – Regan Smith wasn’t sure he’d ever come as close to winning a Sprint Cup race as he did three years ago at Talladega Superspeedway.
Now, he can’t imagine he’ll spend much more time thinking about that 2008 near miss after gaining his first series victory in the Southern 500 on Saturday night.
Smith was denied victory at Talladega when NASCAR ruled he ran below the yellow line on a late pass of Tony Stewart. This time, Smith survived a green-white-checkered finish at Darlington Raceway.
“Winning here means more to me than that (Talladega) win ever could’ve meant,” Smith said. “I don’t think I’ll go to bed tonight thinking about Talladega, that’s for sure.”
Smith started the race in 23rd and was still outside the top 10 with under than 70 laps to go. But he stayed out on old tires during a caution nine laps from the end to take the lead and held off series points leader Carl Edwards in the two-lap overtime to win for the first time in 105 career starts.
“I’m not supposed to win this race. I’ve never even had a top-five. I guess in this series, it just shows anyone can win,” said Smith, whose previous
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