Graveyard Ghosts: Regan Smith’s No. 7 Clean Coal Chevrolet

Ron Lemasters | JR Motorsports | 9/24/2018

News Racecar Graveyard

Among the ghosts at Dale Jr.'s Racecar Graveyard at Dirty Mo Acres are several involved in a last-lap crash at Daytona in 2013. Regan Smith's No. 7 Clean Coal Chevy is one of them.

Driver: Regan Smith

Car: No. 7 Clean Coal Chevrolet Camaro

Track: Daytona International Speedway (Feb. 23, 2013)

Bio: The 2013 DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway affected a lot of teams, but it’s hard to argue that any other was affected quite like JR Motorsports was. That was the race where Kyle Larson’s car was cut nearly in half in the midst of an old-fashioned melee at the start-finish line under the checkered flag.

A previous edition of Graveyard Ghosts detailed team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s experience in that scrum. Regan Smith’s journey through the hail of sheet metal was a little different.

Driving the No. 7 Clean Coal-sponsored Camaro that day, Smith was in the cat-bird seat on the final restart. As the green-white-checkered session got started, Smith was the control car and eventual race winner Tony Stewart was to his outside. On the start, Smith had Brad Keselowski on his bumper, while Sam Hornish Jr. was pushing Stewart. Onto the backstretch, Hornish had managed to push Stewart clear of the field and into Turn 3, the two were five lengths ahead.

Coming to the white flag, Smith popped to the outside line and Keselowski pushed him back to the lead by the exit of Turn 1...no thanks to the helpful pushing of Parker Kligerman and Alex Bowman, which nearly wadded the field up right there. Kligerman nearly turned Bowman’s car sideways at 200 miles per hour.

Down the backstretch, Smith was still ahead of Keselowski as Stewart and Hornish rallied to the outside and the race would be decided off Turn 4.

It surely was.

Smith was concentrating on keeping Keselowski behind him as they roared to the tri-oval, and it was there that Keselowski went for an outside move. Smith came up the track to block, and the resulting contact spun the No. 7 to the outside wall...with the field right behind.

Smith went from the lead to 14th in the blink of an eye...or at least in the amount of time it took for NASCAR to sort out the finishing order. Stewart swept past to win the race, Earnhardt Jr. was fourth despite having his No. 88 destroyed and Larson’s car was, as indicated, gone from the firewall forward.

The No. 7 Clean Coal car, damaged at both ends, occupies a spot within sight of Earnhardt Jr.’s TaxSlayer machine in the lush copse of trees in the Racecar Graveyard.