Smith beats stars to Rookies title

Regan Smith became the 2009 Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year, beating a number of big names to the honour in one of the most difficult seasons for newcomers in NASCAR's premiere division.

Smith started the year at Daytona as the underdog, as drivers like Jacques Villeneuve, Sam Hornish Jr, Dario Franchitti and Patrick Carpentier aimed to follow in former singler-seater ace Juan Pablo Montoya's footsteps.

However as the season progressed, Smith became the main challenger to Sam Hornish Jr as Villeneuve, Franchitti and Carpentier all lost their rides at different stages during the year.

With Hornish failing to make the field for the season finale, Smith's 34th place finish was enough for him to secure Rookie of the Year. He also became the first newcomer in NASCAR history to go through the season finishing every race.

"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 chartered as one of them that was going to contend for Raybestos Rookie of the Year championship," he said.

"So I definitely 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 old 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 were weeks where we ran good and didn't get what we deserved or ran good and got what we deserved."

Smith's high point of the year was the last lap of the second race of the year at Talladega, where he overtook Tony Stewart to close the finish line first. However, he was penalised for making the pass under the yellow line and lost a possible first Cup win.

His ride in the No. 01 car at Dale Earnhardt Incorporated was under-funded all year long but his team remained committed to running him until the end of the season. However, he now faces an uncertain future as his team is merging with Chip Ganassi Racing and he is currently out of a drive for 2009.

"This time of year if you don't figure out what you're doing it's always difficult but it's something at the end of the day you can put that on the shelf at the house and have that accomplishment," said Smith.

"I'm very confident in my abilities as a race car driver. This year's been a tough year and was a tough year for all the rookies. No excuses for that. It was a difficult year with the new car and that's all their was to it.

"I'm pretty confident I'll be driving a Cup car for somebody next year. I just don't know which one."

Smith had competed in seven races for DEI last year and this season he only missed the two road course events at Sonoma and Watkins Glen, where Ron Fellows replaced him.