An up-and-coming youngster from Cato, N.Y., Regan Smith started racing in go-karts when he was four years old. He was a regional champion at age six in 1989. At Age 12, Regan joined the World Karting Association (WKA), and he raced go-karts through 1998 winning numerous championships in the WKA and ended his kart career driving for the factory team of Birel USA and Birel Italy with well-known team owner Enzo Chiovittii.
In 1999, he moved to the Allison Legacy Series to start his stock car education, and he was both Rookie of the Year and National Champion. Then, it was the Hooter's ProCup Series for 2000 and 2001, winning many poles and many top-five finishes.
He ran in the Camping World Truck Series for two races in 2002 and made his Nationwide Series debut that same year, qualifying 15th at Memphis.
In 2003, at the age of 19, Smith competed in 18 Nationwide Series races, scoring a best finish of 15th at Texas.
He continued driving a part time schedule in 2004 and 2005 - running a total of 31 Nationwide Series races and 10 Camping World Truck Series races in that span.
In 2006, the young driver finally got his big opportunity to compete full time, taking over the No. 35 McDonald's Ford Fusion for Team Rensi. In 35 starts, he went on to score a top-10 finish at Lowe's Motor Speedway in the spring and finished 20th in the season standings.
Smith started his Cup career in 2007 as a part-time driver for Ginn Racing. He joined DEI in the middle of 2007 when DEI and Ginn merged their racing operations. He competed in 34 Cup events for Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2008 and became the first Sprint Cup rookie to finish every race he started.
After winning the 2008 Rookie of the Year title, Smith will move on to Furniture Row Racing to drive the No. 78 Chevrolet in 2009.
