#78-Regan Smith would like to see his deal extended with Furniture Row. Having driven for the team part-time in 2009, Smith finished 28th in the standings in 2010 and 26th in 2011 with a win at Darlington. He is 23rd in the standings this year but since crew chief Todd Berrier joined the team in July, Smith has an average finish of 17th-seven spots better than his average finish for the first 19 races. ‘It’s been going really good so far,’ Smith said. ‘Our performance has been greatly improved since he came on board. & We want to get to where we know we ‘re capable of being, one step further up the grid. The case has been made. We ‘ll see how things play out. My first option is to be here. This is the place where I want to be and as long as they want me here, then that’s fine and it’s a happy fit.’ With rumors swirling that [Furniture Row] might pursue [Kurt] Busch, Smith emphasized that he wants to stay with the team. ‘We ‘ve grown together,’ Smith said. ‘We ‘ve gone through a lot together. I want to make sure we go through the really, really peaks of the mountain together. We ‘ll see how it plays out. You ‘re always talking. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the garage area right now. That’s no different than this time of year in any year.’(Sporting News)(9-13-2012)
