Regan Smith enters the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington as the leader in the chase for Raybestos Rookie of the Year, holding a one-point edge over Sam Hornish Jr. (97-96) in the standings.

Smith is the only member of the Raybestos Rookie class that has experience at Darlington Raceway. His best finish in four Nationwide Series starts was 12th in 2007 and he has completed 584 of 588 possible laps.

REGAN SMITH, No. 01 THE PRINCIPAL FINANCIAL GROUP CHEVROLET: YOU COMPLETED ALL BUT FOUR LAPS IN FOUR NATIONWIDE SERIES STARTS HERE. “Yeah and I think of those four laps I think probably three out of the four came in my first race. I enjoy the racetrack. It’s a fun track. I like running up by the wall. It reminds me of Winchester, Indiana and I raced there when I was younger doing some short track. It’s going to be a little bit different this year with the pavement being new and a little bit smoother. I just went up there and watched and it looks like the same ol’ Darlington, the same line and the same marks on the wall already.”

HOW MUCH QUICKER IS THE NEW PAVEMENT GOING TO BE? “I think in testing they said at one point they were two seconds quicker but I know they had tried some different compounds on the tires and stuff like that and I’m sure they said some really soft ones on at one point that were really fast. I’d say it’s almost got to be every bit of a second quicker than what it was. Just looking at the Nationwide times there, I think they are about six tenths quicker than they were last year in race trim and they’ve got less horsepower, too. The main thing is they’re turning their quick lap 20 laps on tires which has never happened here. For somebody that’s a Raybestos Rookie here that hasn’t raced here before like I have, they’re not getting the true feel for Darlington because it used to be all tire management. If you ran one quick lap you were going to pay for next 10 laps. You really had to just conserve your stuff and run hard enough to stay in front of the guy behind you.”

HOW DO YOU STAY OUT OF TROUBLE HERE? “They always say race the racetrack but you really have to race the racetrack. You’re going to be against the wall all day long, you’re going to be on the outside line all day long. Other guys are going to have problems. You’ve got to keep watching ahead but also just focus on putting your car on the track where it needs to be, in the right spots all the time. I don’t know if it’s going to be any easier to stay out of trouble now with the asphalt. I know off of Turn 2 always used to be really tough because it was so rough and it looks like it’s perfectly smooth now. You’ve just got to be smart. It’s just like any other race, except for the fact that the track is narrower and there’s more places to get yourself in trouble.”

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST IMPRESSION OF THIS PLACE? “This is nuts [smiles]. I mean, it was tough. It’s funny because I was watching some of the Nationwide guys, some of the ones that I know haven’t been here before, it takes every bit of probably 10 times in and out before you get used to taking it up towards the wall. Your first lap you’re down maybe a car width off the bottom and you think ‘Oh, I must be doing it right’ then somebody goes by you on the outside and you think ‘Okay, maybe I’m not doing it right’ and you move up. It’s weird to run up by the wall like we do here and be going as fast as we are and have like a cushion almost up there.”

HOW WAS YOUR TEST THIS WEEK AT LOWE’S MOTOR SPEEDWAY? “The test at Charlotte was going great until about an hour to go and the driver thought it would be a good idea to wad up a race car [smile]. Other than that it was good test. We learned a lot and worked on a lot of different combinations and stuff like that and got some good notes.”