Regan Smith (racing driver)

At the end of the 2005 season, Smith signed on with Team Rensi Motorsports to run a full Busch season for 2006, with his best finish of tenth coming at Charlotte Speedway. Smith ended the season with one top ten as well as a number of other strong finishes, and ended the season 20th overall in 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 also sixteen cup races which, would come in a car shared with Mark Martin for the 2007 season.

2007–2008

Smith attempted his first career Cup race at the

Smith made his official

Smith returned to the No. 01 for 2008 as its sole driver, with Martin moving over to the No. 8. The team operated with little to no sponsorship (Principal Financial Group was the main sponsor), but managed to stay in business the entire season. Smith lost out his first win at Talladega Superspeedway because on the final lap, in the trioval, he passed Tony Stewart for first place, but it was announced that Smith went below the yellow line when he made the pass; the victory was given to Stewart. Smith said that he was pushed down by Stewart.^[2]

Despite finishing the season with no top ten finishes in 34 races (he was removed for both road course 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.

2009–2010

After the 2008 season, DEI shut down the No. 01 after merging with Chip Ganassi Racing's NASCAR operation and Smith was released. On January 14, 2009, he signed with Furniture Row Racing to drive the No. 78 for its part-time 2009 slate of races. He made eighteen of twenty attempts with the team, and was hired to drive for the team full-time in 2010, with the team being offered Richard Childress Racing chassis and Hendrick Motorsports engines.

In 2010, he did not score any top tens. His best finish was twelfth (twice) but still finished 28th in the point standings, his best of his career. The team changed engine providers, becoming a user of Earnhardt-Childress Racing Technologies (a joint venture of his former DEI team and Childress Racing) engines for the 2011 season, with

2011–2013

At the 2011 Daytona 500, Smith returned to the No. 78 car. Smith finished seventh after crashing in the final laps while battling for the lead. Although disappointing, he was able to come back and finish seventh in the first top ten finish of his Cup Series career and for Furniture Row Racing.

On May 7, 2011, at the Showtime Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Smith won his first Sprint Cup race, holding off Carl Edwards at the end. On a late caution, Smith stayed out on older tires while Edwards and most of the lead lap cars pitted for fresh right side tires. Smith fended off Edwards for two restarts to claim the first cup win of his career at Darlington Raceway. Smith in recalling the Talladega race he lost in 2008 said he was not worried about it anymore, and said the Darlington win meant more to him than what he would have experienced at Talladega. The win was somewhat overshadowed by a post-race altercation between Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick. It was only the third time a driver had won his first Sprint Cup race at Darlington Raceway, the first being Terry Labonte in 1980, the second being Lake Speed in 1988.

At the 2011 Brickyard 400, Smith had enough fuel to end with a solid 3rd-place finish by passing Jamie McMurray on the last lap, for his second top five of 2011. His former teammate Paul Menard ended up winning the race. Also a strong run at New Hampshire Motor Speedway proved that Smith was ready for the Sprint Cup Series with another top ten position. At the fall race at Talladega Superspeedway, Smith was accidentally turned by Mark Martin and smashed extremely hard head on into the wall. Smith was able to walk away from the crash uninjured but said the crash was one of his hardest wrecks in his career.

In 2012 when the Daytona 500 frustrated many fans and NASCAR officials because of a long rain delay on the planned date, a rain delay in the morning, and then the bizarre fire red flag delay caused by Juan Pablo Montoya's crash into a jet dryer in turn 3 on lap 160, Smith told the public he was so happy and excited for the first time in his career to leave Daytona that night. Smith had been involved in a crash on lap 188 involving several other drivers, but was able to continue on the lead lap.

At the 2012 Irwin Tools Night Race, Smith had gotten through two cautions that resulted in Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart crashing out of the race^{[citation needed]} until he ended up spinning Danica Patrick away from a top ten finish. Patrick crashed head-on and when climbing out of her car, before leaving with officials she thought about tossing her helmet at Smith's car like Stewart had done to Matt Kenseth previously in the past caution, but instead vented her anger/fury by wagging her finger at him when he came by to lap her down. After the race Smith maintained that he did not intentionally crash her while Patrick believed he did and both left Bristol without any penalties.

It was announced on September 24, 2012, that Smith would not be returning to Furniture Row Racing for the 2013 season. He was replaced by Kurt Busch.^[3] In his last start for FRR, in the fall race at Talladega, Smith had a fifth-place finish after clearing a 23-car crash in turn 4 on the last lap.

Smith was set to finish the 2012 season by swapping rides with Busch, with Busch taking over Smith's No. 78 and Smith taking over the unsponsored No. 51 Chevrolet at

For 2013, Smith returned to the Nationwide Series, driving the No. 7 for

Smith finished third in the 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series standings, behind Austin Dillon and Sam Hornish Jr.; he was named the series' Most Popular Driver at the season-ending awards banquet.^[9]

2014

Smith won the season-opening DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona.

On May 24, Smith was tabbed as standby driver for the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports car of

Smith nearly swept the Daytona Nationwide races by nearly winning the Subway Jalapeño 250. He got edged at the start-finish line by teammate Kasey Kahne in a photo-finish. The spring Daytona race was proven to be Smith's only win of 2014. He finished second in the championship standings to teammate Chase Elliott who clinched the championship during the autumn race at Phoenix.

2015

Smith was picked up by

In the Xfinity Series race at Daytona, he flipped over for the first time in his career causing him to finish 35th.[14]

On August 8, at

On October 17, Smith stated that he would not return to JR Motorsports for 2016 and expected to join a team that is competing in the Cup Series in 2016. It was announced on October 28 that Justin Allgaier would bring a Brandt sponsorship and drive the No. 7 in 2016.

2016

Smith returned to the Cup Series in 2016, driving the No. 7 for Tommy Baldwin Racing, a few hours after Alex Bowman was released from the ride.^[16] He started his season with a solid 8th-place finish in the Daytona 500. He had a dismal spring and summer showing with his best finish in 16 starts being 22nd, at Pocono. He later rebounded at the 2016 Pennsylvania 400 with a third-place finish,^[17] matching the best finish in the history of TBR set by Dave Blaney at the 2011 Good Sam Club 500.^[18] Smith ran the full 2016 schedule for TBR with the exception of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400, for which he was replaced by Ty Dillon as he flew to North Carolina to await the birth of his child.^[19]

Smith lost his ride after it was announced on November 17 that Tommy Baldwin Racing would no longer compete full-time after the season was over.^[20]

2017

On February 8, 2017, Smith joined

On November 29, 2017,

Smith is an avid fan of the Carolina Hurricanes^[28] and the Denver Broncos.^[29]

Smith married Megan Mayhew in 2011 and the couple have two children, a son named Rhett Lee born February 25, 2015, and a daughter named Eliza Grace born September 18, 2016.^[30][31]

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Monster Energy Cup Series

Daytona 500

Xfinity Series

Camping World Truck Series

West Series

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

Notes

References

• Smith earns his break

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Regan Smith.

• Official website
• Regan Smith driver statistics at Racing-Reference

Achievements
Preceded by Denny Hamlin	Bojangles' Southern 500 winner 2011	Succeeded by Jimmie Johnson
Awards
Preceded by Juan Pablo Montoya	NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year 2008	Succeeded by Joey Logano
Preceded by Danica Patrick	NASCAR Nationwide Series Most Popular Driver 2013	Succeeded by Chase Elliott