Regan Smith snares Sprint Cup rookie of the year award
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – When the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season began, the Raybestos Rookie of the Year class contained some big names: Former Indy 500 winners Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish Jr. and Jacques Villeneuve. But when the season ended, it was a driver with the most common name of all as the winner: Regan Smith.
The Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver wrapped up the rookie title Sunday with a 34th-place finish in the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“You know, there were a lot of big names that I was racing against, and you look at the stuff at the beginning of the year, not very many people had me [charted] as one of ‘em that was going to contend for [the] Raybestos Rookie of the Year championship,” Smith said. “So definitely [I] had a little bit of a chip on the shoulder about that and wanted to go out there and prove that there is still a good ol’ stock-car path and NASCAR path to get to this series.
“I feel like we did that to a certain extent. Obviously there were weeks I wanted to run better and there was weeks where we ran good and didn’t get what we deserved or ran good and got what we deserved. All in all, I'm very proud to win the Raybestos Rookie of the Year. You look at the names that are on there and [it's] some good names to be included with. At the end of the day you can’t change that. It’s going to be there forever.”
Franchitti’s Chip Ganassi Racing team was forced to shut down because of sponsorship issues, and Franchitti returned to IndyCars. Villeneuve lost his Bill Davis Racing ride early in the year because of money troubles, too, leaving Smith to battle Hornish.
“Well, we were in control of it for most of the year,” said Smith, who shared or led the rookie standings for 26 of the 36 weeks. “At the end there, Sam really started turning it on towards the end of the season, the way the points thing shook down. I know a lot of the other rookies weren’t in cars and the way the points deal shook up it was kind of awkward this year.
“Sam is a talented race-car driver. There’s been a lot of places that he was extremely quick this year. At the mile-and-a-halves, he’s been quicker than us at a lot of ‘em. We’ve been quicker than him at some of ‘em but I think he’ll work it out and get it figured out next year, definitely. And Penske is a good organization so they’ll put good stuff behind him for sure.”
Smith’s tenure in the Sprint Cup Series is tenuous at best, as the DEI-Chip Ganassi Racing merger might put him out of a ride.
“It’s a big deal being the first driver from DEI to be able to get it, not knowing what I’m doing next year, if I’m going to be part of the Ganassi-DEI thing or not,” Smith said. “At least I’ve got that that I can take to ‘em and let [team owner] Teresa [Earnhardt] put in the trophy room. She gave me a great opportunity this year.”
