Full Throttle

I guess you could subtitle this “From the Penthouse to the Dog House.”

FoxSports is reporting (via Yahoo, the story went “missing” at Fox) 2008 Raybestos Rookie of the Year winner Regan Smith will drive for Furniture Row Racing in 2009.

I’ll be the first to admit any ride is better than none, and none was exactly the position Regan Smith was in as 2008 closed out.

Smith started 2007 splitting the #01 ride with Mark Martin. But a week before Bobby Ginn sold his team to DEI, he shuffled his lineup and gave Smith his own full-time Nextel Cup ride, while signing Aric Almirola to split the rest of the season with Martin.

Smith also rode the #01 full-time in 2008, but with no full-time sponsorship.

At Talladega, Regan Smith made a last ditch effort on the final lap and passed Tony Stewart in the tri-oval, 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 defense fell on deaf ears.

Smith has said expectations to be part of the new Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing team were slim, at best, and as things have turned out he’s proved to be very prophetic.

Other than Casey Attwood I can’t think of another Cup driver that has had such a rocky start to his career.

He goes from Ginn, to DEI and rides that to Rookie of the Year honors and becomes the first rookie in NASCAR history to record no DNFs in 34 starts.

Then is left without a ride and has to settle for a part-time ride in the #78.

On the other hand, he does have a ride. That’s more than you can say for Casey Attwood.