Editor’s note: This season, Furniture Row Racing driver Regan Smith will be writing exclusive diary entries for SBNation.com. This is his first entry.
Regan Smith’s NASCAR Driver Diary
Let’s get this out of the way first: I’m not David Ragan.
Because of the similarities in our names, people confuse us all the time. He's David Ragan; I'm Regan (pronounced "REE-gan") Smith.
I drive for Furniture Row Racing, which is based out of Colorado. We’ve got a bad-ass team here, but I think because we race out of Denver and we’re not in the mainstream of the Charlotte area, people don’t realize this team is the real deal.
We're not working out of a four-car garage at somebody's house in Colorado. We've got all the parts and pieces we need, and we don't lack for anything. We do all the things every other team does, but sometimes we get confused with the teams that are just...there.
We're competitors. And in the second half of the season last year, we out-ran a lot of very big teams on a weekly basis.
We notice it. And slowly but surely, maybe other people will start noticing it, too.
I think the main thing for you to know about me personally is I’m probably no different than anyone else, really. I’m just a quiet, shy person for the most part – it just so happens that I love racing and I’m fortunate I get to do that for a living.
I don’t come from any special background. I don’t come from a family that’s been in racing their whole lives or anything like that. I come from a normal working family that was fortunate enough to be successful.
Both my parents came from next to nothing and have worked their butts off their entire lives to make a good living for our family. That put them in a situation where they could afford to put me in race cars and let me try to race.
They were always race fans, and my dad even owned cars at a young age. My parents originally met at a racetrack. So while they both had interest in the sport, that’s where the racing roots stop.
Riding with them on the highway, I’m pretty sure I got my driving ability from my mom. She’s pretty much a nutcase on the road, so that dispels the notion that you always get your driving ability from your dad.
For me to get to where I am right now with Furniture Row Racing, there have been a lot of ups and downs. But I think that all helps mold who you are and helps you find your place in the sport.
Coming into this season, it’s the most confident I’ve personally ever been. We’re kind of flying under the radar right now – and I’m happy about that. Toward the end of the year, our performances started getting noticed, but people forgot about us again in the offseason.
And that’s fine. You can hit things a little harder that way.
The best thing is, we have the same personnel we had last year. We had one guy who decided he wanted to get off the road this year, but outside of that, we’re essentially the same race team.
All of that stuff has really boosted my confidence. This is the first season where I’ve gone into the year and felt like I could really make an impact on the season. By the end of last year, what we were able to start doing and accomplishing was right around what we were shooting for – so now the goals are loftier and heavier.
I’m glad we’re going to be able to be more aggressive on the track this year. Sometimes, your driving personality and what you do on the racetrack doesn’t always mesh. For the past couple years, we’ve been in a situation where we needed to finish races and have solid results – not wreck cars by doing anything too stupid or taking many chances.
Even in 2008, my rookie year, we were in a bind in the points situation and you couldn’t risk anything. But coming into this year, we’re not going to have to worry about the top 35 at all – we’re going to be worried about the racing.
You know, when you’re running 25th to 30th, there’s no reason to wreck race cars. There’s no reason to make a move that’s questionable and take somebody out.
But if you’re running 10th, then it’s a little more understandable if you make a move and mess up or make a mistake – you can say, “We were going for it.” So be it.
My whole career, I’ve been very aggressive. Even back in my Nationwide days, I used to tear stuff up all the time. But I hear people say, “Man, when you came to Cup, you don’t tear stuff up anymore and you finish races.”
Well, that’s not really done by design – it’s just been the circumstances of how I’ve had to race. This year, we’re going to be in situations more often where you can go for that aggression.
Instead of giving and taking with guys and being polite, you can do more taking. I think that’s going to show up more this year.
And I’m excited about that.
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