LEXINGTON, Ohio – Regan Smith got ready for Bristol a week early. But he did it on a road course.
The 31-year-old NASCAR veteran on Saturday afternoon used a move often seen at the famed eastern Tennessee “bull ring” to shove aside Alex Tagliani in the Carousel, one turn from the finish, to win the third annual Nationwide Children’s Hospital 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
It was the first victory of the year for Regan, who drives for JR Motorsports. The winning move thrilled team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose famous late father used the same move many times in his own legendary career. In Michigan for the Sprint Cup race on Sunday, Earnhardt tweeted moments after the race ended, “@ReganSmith drove his ass off. Made all of @JRMotorsports proud.”
The hard bump didn’t thrill Tagliani, an open-wheel veteran from Canada who was driving the road course for Penske Racing.
Tagliani cleanly passed Smith at the end of the backstraight with 15 laps left in the 75-lap event around the 2.25-mile track. Tagliani, who held on to finish second, said his pass of Smith was something he took 10 laps to set up.
“If I knew that he was going to win like that, probably instead of passing him fair and square, I would probably have pushed him off a bit. But he knows I’m not going to be there next week (at Bristol) to retaliate,” said Tagliani, who had earned the pole to start the race earlier in the day.
“It’s really unfortunate what happened at the end. Winning this way is not winning. I was unprepared (for Smith’s aggressive move). The next time I will not be unprepared.”
Naturally, Smith had a far different view of the finish, which snapped his 52-race losing streak. The 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year said he pressured Tagliani throughout the last lap and believed his opponent was feeling the pressure.
“I could see he was getting a little more squirrely (behind the wheel),” said Smith, who was wrecked from behind last week midway through the Xfinity Series stop at the Watkins Glen road course.
“(My crew) work their butts off all week. This car was destroyed door tops down, they rebuilt it in one day. … We’ve had a lot of opportunities to win. I hate to do it in the last corner, but it’s been too long, a long time. I wasn’t going to pass the opportunity by.
“I’ve been wrecked so many times on these road courses. I had to do what I had to right there. I didn’t spin him, just got the spot. We’re going to celebrate hard tonight.
“These wins are hard to come by. We are hungry for wins, even hungrier after last week,” Smith said.
Tagliani and defending champion Chris Buescher had the two strongest cars early in the race, but both elected to pit on the eighth lap when the first of a track-record eight cautions (totaling 25 laps) flew. The leaders pitted for the final time just beyond the midway point on lap 43 during the fifth yellow.
Smith, who was second at Mid-Ohio last year, matched Tagliani and Buescher, beginning about midway through the race. He took the lead in the pits, edging Tagliani by a fender coming back onto the track. Tagliani then made his pass on lap 61. A caution with three laps remaining set up the finish.
Ty Dillon was third, followed by Buescher, Chase Elliott, Elliott Sadler, Brian Scott, Darrell Wallace, Dylan Lupton and Ben Rhodes.
Buescher maintained his lead in the series standings, 24 points ahead of Dillon.
