Casey Smith Posts Top-10 Finish at Greenville-Pickens

Greenville, SC -- Casey Smith brought the No. 51 ROYAL PURPLE/Turner Motorsports Chevrolet to a strong eighth-place finish on Saturday in the 150 lap NASCAR Southeast Series event at the famed Greenville-Pickens Speedway.

Although Smith had the fifth-fastest speed in qualifying, he started the race in sixth after pole-sitter Jeff Fultz drew number 10, determining that the top-10 in qualifying would be inverted.

“I enjoy this track because it’s very challenging,” said Smith. “When we were here last week testing, it was really hot and the track was very slippery.  When I got back to the shop, my teammate Chris Davidson and I reviewed our notes from the test and came here with pretty much identical set-ups. As a result, we both had good cars in practice.”

The high heat Saturday combined with heavy rain after qualifying created a slippery track surface, and by the time the first caution flag fell on lap 26, Smith communicated to his crew that he was not loose or tight, but that the track was just slick everywhere. On the first stop of the day, the crew pulled out a spring rubber and gave him a new rear tire.

Smith restarted the race in 12th position and by lap 87, had made his way up to the 10th position. He continued to move up throughout the remainder of the event to finish eighth.

“It’s so hard to pass here and the track was so slick,” said Smith. “However, I knew our car was strong and I was determined to give the team the best finish I could get out of it -- after all of their hard work and preparation.”

Turner Motorsports leaves Greenville-Pickens with two top-10 finishes.  Davidson finished directly behind Smith in the ninth position.

Smith’s next race will be August 27th piloting his family-owned Super Late Model in the USRA 125 at Houston Motorsports Park .