Nationwide leaders Chase Elliott and Regan Smith miss opportunities at Kansas Speedway

When Chase Elliott and Regan Smith arrive at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday for the next NASCAR Nationwide Series race, they will sit first and second in the driver standings.

It won’t be as a result of their performance Saturday at Kansas Speedway.

Although Elliott and Smith maintained their spots atop the series standings, the JR Motorsports teammates had uncharacteristically disappointing finishes in the Kansas Lottery 300. Elliott finished 10th and Smith was 22nd.

Elliott even expanded his first-place lead to 38 points but only because he outperformed Smith.

“We really struggled, and there’s no excuse for that,” Elliott said. “We just had a bad day today. Regardless of what the points situation looks like, this is not the performance we were hoping for today. I’m bummed about it. We may have gained (in the points standings), but I’m certainly bummed.”

The day started poorly for Smith. It only got worse.

He spun out in qualifying and had to use his backup car for the race. As a result, he started 38th — his worst starting position of the year.

It also was a sign of things to come.

Smith lost a sway bar in the middle of the race and the resulting repair cost him a chance to move up. He finished outside of the top 10 for the first time in the last eight Nationwide races.

“Just getting the car ready and getting where we could get a grip with it, much less being competitive for the first stages of the race, we fought with it,” Smith said.

With only four races remaining, Smith not only lost ground in the chase to catch Elliott, but he allowed the rest of the pack to creep closer.

Smith entered Saturday with a 20-point lead over third-place Ty Dillon, a margin that shrank to two points after the race.

“We’re disappointed, but we’re going to keep going and getting as many Nationwide Insurance Series points as we can,” Smith said.

Smith made his 11th appearance at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, with four of them Nationwide Series events.

Elliott, on the other hand, had a bit of a fallback excuse. The Nationwide rookie was racing for the first time at Kansas Speedway.

“We have some work to do coming back here for next year,” Elliott said. “Hopefully we can rebound next week at Charlotte and have a better week there.”

This story was originally published October 4, 2014 at 7:40 PM with the headline "Nationwide leaders Chase Elliott and Regan Smith miss opportunities at Kansas Speedway."