At 12 he was racing in the World Karting Association. He earned championships and awards, and moved on. His Truck Series debut was in 2002, and he has run 102 races in the Nationwide Series spread across six years. His only full-time season was 2006.

He shared a ride with Mark Martin last year, and this year he has his own full-time ride with Dale Earnhardt Inc.

“

It's been exactly like Regan said, it's been a tough year for a lot of the rookies.

”

SAM HORNISH JR.

He's worked his way through the traditional path to the Sprint Cup Series, yet rookie Regan Smith continues to be unheralded.

"Well I definitely think that we've gone a little bit under the radar," said Smith, who has competed in all but two Cup events this year -- both road-course races. "We've led the rookie points for seven consecutive races and up until that point we hadn't lost the rookie lead until we missed a couple of races there at the road courses, and Ron Fellows did a great job filling in for us. So I think from that standpoint we've definitely gone under the radar."

Smith wasn't necessarily expected to be blazing a trail as a Cup rookie. The 2008 class fit the mold from last year: Former open-wheel star enters NASCAR, steals headlines, wins rookie of the year.

In 2007, Juan Montoya switched to stock cars, won a race at Sonoma and ended up winning a tight rookie points battle. The guy who took the conventional route to the Cup Series -- David Ragan -- ended up a quiet second in rookie points.

This year, there were four open-wheel converts, three of which were Indianapolis 500 winners: Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish Jr., Patrick Carpentier and Jacques Villeneuve.

Franchitti was the 2007 Indy Racing League champion and Indianapolis 500 winner, yet bolted for stock cars. Hornish won the Indy 500 in 2006 and is a three-time IRL champion. Villeneuve won the 1995 Indianapolis 500, as well as titles in CART and Formula One. Carpentier had two Champ Car victories and three wins in CART.

Michael McDowell was promoted from ARCA and became the sixth rookie in the class.

And there was Smith.

Yet as they stand now, Franchitti announced Tuesday he's going back to IRL after his NASCAR team at Ganassi Racing folded. Carpentier is being booted from his Gillett Evernham Motorsports ride. Villeneuve never started a race.

McDowell's future is uncertain considering MWR is moving David Reutimann back into the 00 car next season. He has missed the last three races so Michael Waltrip Racing could put Mike Skinner in the No. 00 car to evaluate where the team stands.

Paired down to Hornish and Smith, it's actually Smith who currently holds the rookie lead over Hornish by one point after Sunday's race at Fontana.

"Maybe it's rightfully so," Smith said of the little attention he's received compared to his open-wheel counterpart Hornish who has made $1.1 million more than him this year. "Sam has got great credentials with the Indy 500s and the championships and things like that on a national market. But I am driving for DEI and they've done a great job this year. The car has been solidly in the top 35 all season long and we've had some good runs and finished races. Like I said, I don't know if it's justified or not, but maybe a little bit."

None of the rookies have come close to winning this season. Hornish's 13th-place finish at Charlotte was his best of the season. Smith's best finish this season is 14th (twice), and Carpentier was 14th in July's race at Daytona. McDowell's best finish was at Sonoma when he was 21st. In Franchitti's 10 races this season, he never finished higher than 22nd.

"It's been exactly like Regan said, it's been a tough year for a lot of the rookies," said Hornish, who switched crew chiefs three weeks ago. "A lot of times for us it seems like as soon as we start getting on a roll and getting things turned around, we get some kind of a setback."

His latest setback was falling outside of the top 35 in owner points. At 36th, Hornish must qualify for Saturday's race on speed.

"You don't have that situation you do in a lot of other divisions where you can just go out and out-spend everyone and have a better car. Even if you're not on your game, you finish second or third," Ragan said. "Here, everybody is spending a lot of money. All the crew chiefs are experienced as are the car owners. Everybody has manufacturer support. It's tough.

"A lot of young kids come in and if they run 15th or 20th every week they think that's a bad race. You have to kind of learn or tell yourself it's not too bad of a race; we can improve and work on that."

The biggest setback for this rookie class, however, may not be known for years to come.

In the last decade, every driver to win rookie of the year is also a race winner in the Cup Series. The last driver to win the award without a career victory was Kenny Irwin Jr., who was a rookie in 1998.

But sliding under the radar may not be a bad thing, according to last year.

In finishing second in rookie points, Ragan had just two top-fives in 2007. This year, he's battling for a Chase spot as the series turns to Saturday night's cutoff race at Richmond. He is still searching for his first victory, but he is 13th in points, just 17 points behind 12th-place Clint Bowyer. Montoya, however, is mired in 21st in points.

"On the track, my confidence overshadowed my experience," Ragan said of his rookie campaign last season. "I felt like I could go out and be Superman, qualify on the pole, lead every lap and win the race. I hit reality pretty quick. These guys are all pretty good racers. You can go out and test and practice as much as you want, but when you go out and put yourself on the racetrack with 42 other drivers that's what makes it a little tougher than what it seems to be."

Smith hopes the same path Ragan took awaits him. He is uncertain of his future, and negotiations for him to return to DEI have stalled due to sponsorship concerns. Smith said he's not naïve; he's been talking to people in the garage in search for a backup plan although his first choice would be to return to his current team.

Either way, he just wants to be able to get rid of the one thing about him that does stick out -- the bright yellow rookie stripe.

"I don't think for me that until we peel those stripes off at the end of the year that I'll ever feel like I'm not a rookie," Smith said. "Until they see that there's no stripes on that racecar anymore it's a little bit of a mental thing. Like Sam said, they still know who is in the car, but those stripes, it's just something about 'em. They stick out pretty big time."