Even now, David Smith feels that he did the right thing.

Smith worked with Richard Childress Racing for more than 25 years, and had seen it grow from the humblest of beginnings into one of the most powerful organizations in the sport. He had been Dale Earnhardt's jackman for six of his seven NASCAR championships. Will Lind, Kirk Shelmerdine, Danny "Chocolate" Myers, Smith and the rest of the over-the-wall gang were masters of all that they surveyed in the late 1980s and early '90s.

Earnhardt ruled the racetrack, and they owned pit road. They were called the Junkyard Dogs and later, the Flying Aces.

There had been an offer or two from other teams. When you're named the best jackman in the sport year after year after year, you get that kind of attention. Still, Smith remained with RCR. He was one of them, even after he was replaced as Earnhardt's crew chief following the 1996 season. He moved on to manage Mike Skinner's No. 31 team and then headed all of the organization's pit crew operations.

Loyal? That's David Smith in a nutshell. Here's another way to describe Smith. Devout. There are Christians, and then there's Smith. No, he's not perfect and doesn't claim to be. Instead, his is a faith that's felt to the very core of his being. He's not bombastic or belligerent. Smith just believes what he believes, and he believes it very sincerely.

When Childress signed Jack Daniel's as primary sponsor of his No. 07 car prior to the start of the 2005 season, after all those years and so much success together, Smith could not bring himself to stay. He'd made the decision years before, and as he had on so many other occasions, held fast to his convictions.

"That decision was made the first day I went to work for Richard Childress," Smith said. "When I went to work for him in 1979, I said, 'Richard, I'll work for you as long as you don't have a direct alcohol sponsorship or [from] a dirty magazine. I'm a Christian man. I wasn't always. I used to be a wild man, crazy, drink and party and all that myself. But I don't do it anymore. I'm not gonna support it.'"

David Smith

That's not to say that Smith walked away without a second thought. He loves Childress, still does to this day. As an integral part of Richard Childress Racing, he'd been part of one of the most phenomenal success stories the sport has ever known. He was also walking away from no small amount of stability.

"That would've been an easy decision in '79 and the early '80s," Smith continued. "I was hardly making any money. Richard couldn't afford it. When I left, I had a great position. I had a great job. I was making a great income. In spite of all that, I had to say, 'I can't do it. I have to go away.'"

Smith, who'd held a real estate license since 1978, eventually went to work for Coldwell Banker Triad, Realtors in Winston-Salem, N.C. The 57-year-old Smith specializes in residential properties, and he's also got a couple of commercial listings. It has been a bumpy road, Smith admits, but he's used to hard work. That's what it'll take to get up to speed in real estate, so that's what he's going to do.

That Smith left racing and is now working in real estate is not the end of his story, however. Far from it. In the middle and late summer of 2006, Smith began having problems urinating. He was going ... all the time, getting up in the middle of night, the whole deal. He researched his symptoms online, and figured it could be nothing more than some sort of inflammation of his prostate.

It wasn't.

Smith's problems worsened, and soon doctors discovered a lump. His PSA (prostate-specific antigen) level was high -- normal for his age is about 4 nanograms per milliliter of blood, and Smith tested at 16. A biopsy was scheduled, and about this time last year, in November 2006, Smith was officially diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Not only was Smith's cancer a particularly aggressive form of the disease -- he'd had a perfectly clean examination just a couple of years before -- it was also relatively rare.

Doctors threw everything they could possibly throw at the tumor. Smith underwent three months of chemotherapy, as well as hormone shots. For years, he'd been taking vitamins and drinking an herbal tea, and he's convinced that helped, too.

His PSA went back down to 0, but Smith was advised that he needed to have his prostate removed altogether in order to prevent cancerous cells from spreading to other parts of his body. He held off as long as possible, hoping against hope that the radical surgery wouldn't be necessary. In August, some of the symptoms started all over again.

That was it. Smith went through with the surgery Oct. 2, and from all indications, he is now cancer-free.

"God blessed, and a lot of people prayed," Smith said. "That's what's brought me through this, I know. They did the surgery, and it was contained in the prostate. It had not spread outside it. ... Right now, there are no further treatments planned for me. Again, I just thank God for that."

What makes Smith's dedication all the more amazing is that he has faced his cancer without benefit of insurance. When he first left RCR, Smith tried to pay for it on his own, but of course, it was so incredibly expensive. His church, Freedom Baptist Church in Rural Hall, N.C., took up an offering for Smith as he went through his chemotherapy.

Then, the surgery presented a whole new set of bills. That said, Smith has no regrets about leaving RCR.

"I'm in a little bit of a tough situation," Smith said. "There's a tremendous amount of expense that has piled up. God's supplying. It's gonna work out. I told them guys [at RCR], 'Y'all be thankful for what you've got here because these benefits are incredible, especially when you get out here and experience what I have.' I know the Lord works in strange and mysterious ways. I've trusted Him on everything, still do. But sometimes we get tested. I know that God's gonna get the glory in my illness and my recovery. He's answered prayer to bring me through this.

"But I guess maybe He's just showing me He's God, that I really need to trust Him even more than I did, that he is my sustenance. I trust Him on that. I know all this is gonna work out. ... I'm not worried about it. I'm not worried about it."