SMITH'S LONG WINDING ROAD

Lost amongst all of the Dale Jr. hoopla at Daytona this year, was his Nationwide Series driver who happened to win as impressively as his boss, on Saturday. Regan Smith, who lost on a last lap screw up of his own making in the 2013 Nationwide race at Daytona, avenged his loss with a mighty impressive win in 2014. Everyone has a story. But, Regan Smith’s story is one worth telling, I think. If you can follow it without developing a migraine.


Does anyone remember Bobby Ginn? If not, no worries. He is only relevant to this in that he put Regan Smith in a car for a testing session at Kentucky in 2006, which resulted in him putting Regan in his 01 Cup car part time for the 2007 season. Smith was the co-driver of that ride with semi-retired Mark Martin. He was all set to jump into the 14 in July to run full-time for the remainder of 2007, but then Ginn up and sold his team to DEI and the 14 did not run for the rest of the year. The merger, though, did result in Smith driving the 2008 season in a mostly un-sponsored 01 car for DEI. He managed to win the 2008 Rookie of the year Award, and as far as quite a few fans, including this one, are concerned, he won the 2008 spring race at Talladega. Even Ray Charles could have seen that Stewart forced him below the yellow line.

Late in 2008 though, the merger ninja struck Smith once again as DEI merged with Ganassi, and it was revealed that the 01 team was folding. Smith had no ride for 2009, despite being the 2008 Cup Series ROY. Early in 2009 he signed to drive for Furniture Row (Pre Hendrick or Childress parts and pieces). He remained the driver in 2010 when the team was running Hendrick engines and Childress chassis, and performed quite well for the single car team. In 2011, his team was pieced together again with ECR engines and SHR pit Crews. And he put the team in Victory Lane at Darlington that year. At this point, it is safe to say that Regan will drive anything, put together by anyone, at any race track, regardless of sponsorship.

As his career path goes, just as he was enjoying some stability, he was released again, in favor of Kurt Busch in October 2012. At this point, a lot of guys may have thrown in the towel. I mean, how many times can a guy get merged out, released, or folded?

As with many things in life, being released from Furniture Row was a blessing in disguise for Regan. It marked a turning point in Smith’s career. It just so happened that Dale Earnhardt Jr. was injured in the Fall Talladega race and was forced to sit the remainder of the year. Guess who got the call to pilot the 88 car? Which lead to signing with JRM to drive full time in the Nationwide Series. A lot of people would consider not being in Cup any longer as a career setback. I don’t buy it. Regan has something at JRM, which he has never enjoyed: JOB SECURITY. Kelley Earnhardt has set the kid up with a great team, great crew, great cars, and an even better sense of stability. She has secured the sponsorship for his team, and made certain that JRM’s drivers have everything plus more than they need to win races. And it shows on the track on Saturdays. He finished 3rd in the NNS Series title run for 2013, and is poised to make another run for it this season. Regan even won the most popular NNS driver award for 2013 and qualified the HMS 48 Cup series car for Jimmie Johnson at Richmond. No, I don’t see his lack of a Cup ride being an issue at all for the kid. His days in Cup were like daytime television. He is now in prime time. And as a fan, I am very proud of him.