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| Born | September 23, 1983 | ||||||
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| Hometown | Cato, New York | ||||||
| Awards | 2006 BGNRacing.com Most Popular Driver 2008 Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year | ||||||
| NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Statistics | |||||||
| Car #, Team | #78 - Furniture Row Racing | ||||||
| 2007 Sprint Cup Position | 50th | ||||||
| First Race | 2007 Food City 500 (Bristol) | ||||||
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| NASCAR Nationwide Series Statistics | |||||||
| 2007 NNS Position | 31st | ||||||
| Best NNS Position | 20th - 2006 (Busch Series) | ||||||
| First Race | 2002 Sam's Town 250 Benefiting St. Jude (Memphis) | ||||||
| Last Race | 2007 Winn Dixie 250 presented by PepsiCo (Daytona) | ||||||
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| NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Statistics | |||||||
| First Race | 2002 John Boy & Billy's Hardee's 250 (South Boston) | ||||||
| Last Race | 2008 Cool City Customs 200 (Michigan) | ||||||
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| Statistics current as of October 11, 2008. | |||||||
Regan Smith (born September 23, 1983, in Cato, New York) is a NASCAR driver. He currently drives the #78 Furniture Row Chevrolet Impala SS for Furniture Row Racing on a part-time basis.
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Beginnings
Smith began his racing career at the age of four, when he began racing go-karts and microds in syracuse microd club. Over the next several years, he won numerous regional and state championships. In 1995, he and his family moved to Mooresville, North Carolina to allow Smith to advance his career. He joined the World Karting Association and continued to win, joining the factory-supported team owned by Enzo Chiovitti in 1998. That same year, he began competing in the Allison Legacy Series.
In 2001, he began driving in the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series, winning four consecutive poles.
2002-2004
Smith began his NASCAR career racing in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2002. He made his debut at the age of 18 driving the #63 Ford F-150 for MB Motorsports at South Boston Speedway. He qualified 28th and finished 29th at South Boston and finished 30th at Phoenix after starting 12th in that race. He also made his Busch Series debut at Memphis Motorsports Park for Ed Whitaker, starting 16th but finishing 39th after a wreck.
Smith moved to the Busch Series in 2003 for a full-time ride with Bost Motorsports. Despite a lack of major sponsorship, Smith had three top-twenty finishes. However, the underfunded team opted for other drivers halfway through the year, forcing Smith out of work. He drove one race for Innovative Motorsports at Pikes Peak International Raceway, finishing 40th after early mechanical failures forced him to exit the race on the second lap. He also drove for Mac Hill Motorsports in the Ford 300, finishing 28th.
Smith continued to drive for Mac Hill in various Busch races in 2004, his best finish coming at Nashville Superspeedway, where he finished 24th. Following his release from the team, he was hired to drive the #50 Enzyte Chevrolet Monte Carlo for Michael Holigan for three races and appeared in a few episodes of The Reality of Speed on SpikeTV, his best finish 26th at Chicagoland Speedway, before that team suspended operations. After a fifteenth place finish at Pikes Peak for Phoenix Racing, he posted his best NASCAR finish to date at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the Truck Series, 9th in the #06 John Boy & Billy Chevy for MRD Motorsports.
2005-Present
Smith began the 2005 season with Xpress Motorsports's #19 team, but lost the ride after sponsorship failed to materialize. He was soon hired as the driver of the #65 Glynn Motorsports Dodge Ram. In four races in the truck, he had a 20th at Texas and a pair of 22nds at Mansfield and Dover. He was then elevated to Glynn's Busch Series team. Originally unsponsored, the team soon garned sponsorship from Who's Your Daddy? and Samson Stone. Despite a streak of six races where he did not qualify worse than twelfth, including three thirteenth-place runs, he was released from the team. He ended the year in the Truck Series MRD for the closing races of the season, finishing 29th, 33rd and 32nd in three late season starts for that team.
At the end of the 2005 season, Smith signed on with Team Rensi Motorsports to run a full Busch season for 2006. The season overall wasn't much of a success with his best finish of 10th coming at Charlotte Speedway. Smith ended the season with 1 top 10 as well as a number of other strong finishes and was 20th in overall points. Towards the end of the season, Smith tested for Ginn Racing at Kentucky and signed a deal with them to run the full Busch season and 16 cup races sharing a ride with Mark Martin for 2007.
Regan Smith made his Nextel Cup debut at the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, finishing 25th in NASCAR's first Car of Tomorrow race[1]. Regan made 6 starts in the #01 sharing ride with Mark Martin. Regan attempted to make the Daytona 500 but did not make the race. He was removed from the #01 on July 17, 2007 and moved to the #14 after the release of Sterling Marlin, but before the team could run a race Ginn Racing mergered with Dale Earnhardt, Inc.. As a result the #14 team's owner points were transferred to DEI's #15 team and Smith was out of a ride. He then moved to the Craftsman Truck series to drive the #47 for Morgan-Dollar Motorsports for starting at O'Reilly Raceway Park. Smith's career best finish is 14th at Martinsville Speedway, in the 2008 spring race.
Smith returned to the #01 for 2008 as its sole driver, with Martin moving over to the #8. The team operated with little to no sponsorship, but managed to stay in business the entire season. At the Talladega fall race, Regan Smith made a last ditch effort on the final lap and passed Tony Stewart in the trioval, initially winning the race. However, Smith's pass came under the track's designated Yellow Line, and NASCAR stripped Smith of his win, relegating him to an eighteenth place finish. Smith protested the call, claiming that a ruling in a previous race deemed passing below the yellow line on the final lap legal, and that Stewart forced him below the yellow line, but his allegations fell on deaf ears.
Despite finishing the season with no top ten finishes in 34 races, Smith won the 2008 Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year award, beating out Sam Hornish, Jr.. He became the first rookie driver in Sprint Cup history to finish every race entered in his rookie season.
After the 2008 season DEI shut down the #01 after merging with Chip Ganassi Racing's NASCAR operation and Smith was released, becoming the first ever Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year not retained by his team for the following season. On January 14, 2009 he signed with Furniture Row Racing to drive the #78 for its part-time 2009 slate of races.
References
- ^ "Smith Bounces Back From Early Mistake in Cup Debut". The Crittenden Automotive Library. http://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/articles/0201.php. Retrieved on 2007-05-09.
External links
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