DEI rookie, Regan Smith showed his chops in the closing laps of the Amp 500 at Talladega. Smith and teammate, Paul Menard were right where they wanted to be. For the final green/white/checker finish it was Tony Stewart leading with the #01 second, #15 sitting third and the #8 forth.
Aric Amirola got dumped out of line right away leaving Menard and Smith to deal with the #20. The draft line held that way into the white flag lap. As the leaders came off turn 4, the #15 gave Regan Smith a good push. Smoke moved to block the bottom and the #01 had to go below the yellow line or hit the #20. At the line the #01 was ahead. NA$CAR quickly declared Tony Stewart the winner. Regan Smith was scored 18th, last car on the lead lap.
“I’m definitely proud of the way that we raced. I couldn’t have lived with myself if I hadn’t gone for the win,” Smith said. “I had a solid shot to win the race and I was racing against Stewart. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
“I knew that I had to go for the win,” he said. “If I had just sat back there in second place, I would have had 400 people at Dale Earnhardt Inc. mad at me. The guys built me a great car, and I owed them a chance at the win.”
Smith knew his options were not good. For a rookie, he made a good decision to avoid a certain wreck if he hit the #20 in the tri-oval.
“I grew up working on my own race cars, so I respect the guys that work for me and [Stewart] way too much to tear up our cars and make those guys repair them,” Smith said. “Not to mention, I could have wrecked the entire field, not just Tony and myself, and there really was no reason for that.”
Regan Smith and Paul Menard have labored all season in obscurity. The #01 has been weak in sponsorship all through the ‘08 season. Menard is moving on to Yates Racing in ‘09 and with him goes the Menard package of sponsors. Word is that no sponsor has signed to carry the #01 into the ‘09 season. Grumpy thinks it would be a shame if this kid does not get a chance to grow and develop with DEI.
“We’ve got four great teams at Dale Earnhardt Inc. and I was glad to see us get some of the recognition we deserve.” Smith said. “We have a lot of really good people working on these teams, and I think you were able to see the product of that effort on Sunday.”
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