CONCORD, N.C. -- Regan Smith gets a faraway look in his eyes when he talks about it, as if he can almost envision the moment in all its delicious detail. Coasting around the racetrack and into Victory Lane, embracing crewmen with whom he's shared so much struggle, standing amid all that fluttering confetti and sprayed champagne. And then taking that big Talladega Superspeedway trophy back to Dale Earnhardt Inc. headquarters, and placing it alongside all the others the company has accumulated throughout the years.

It's that last part that gets to him.

"I said it standing at the back of the NASCAR hauler, and I had to walk away after I said it, because I was having a tough time with the whole situation there," Smith said at Lowe's Motor Speedway. "It hurt me more not to be able to bring a trophy back to DEI, and to take it back to the shop, the trophy room, whatever you want to call it, where we have all the trophies displayed, and say yes, I helped add something to the legacy of this company. That hurt me more than losing the race and getting put back to 18th, losing the rookie points, all the things that happened with the whole situation. That was the one thing I cared more about than anything."

Those dreams evaporated in the aftermath of Sunday's event, when NASCAR officials ruled that Smith had passed Tony Stewart below the yellow out-of-bounds line at the bottom of the racetrack, voiding what would have been a first career Sprint Cup victory for the 25-year-old native of Cato, N.Y. Stewart was declared the winner, Smith was sent to the back of the lead lap -- 18th place -- and the controversy over who really won has followed the circuit from the hills of northern Alabama to the North Carolina piedmont.

For Smith and his Dale Earnhardt Inc. race team, a once-great organization trying to climb back to prominence, the days since have been bittersweet ones. There have been plenty of pats on the back from fans and competitors alike, congratulations from those who believe the No. 01 car should have been the winner. There's the pride in seeing two DEI cars, those of Smith and Paul Menard, run at the front for much of Sunday, extending a string of promising performances for the team. There's the hope that Smith and DEI have shown enough that a corporate sponsor will jump on board to fund the operation for all of next season.

But oh, the curiosity over what might have been had NASCAR let the result on the racetrack stand. For Smith, there are constant reminders. Even Friday at Charlotte, the Talladega finish nearly a week behind them, a crewman on the No. 01 remarked to the driver that a victory would have qualified them for the annual All-Star exhibition.

"I got pissed off all over again about it," Smith said. "You definitely think about what it would have meant for your career. I would like to believe that's not the only time I'm going to be in position to win a race. Unfortunately, the way this sport is, you never know. You might never get another opportunity like that. I've heard guys who have won 70 races say that, I enjoy this one just as much as the first, because you never know when it's your last one. But I'm confident enough in my ability that I'm going to be in that position again. Maybe it's this week, maybe it's a year from now, maybe it's two months from now, I don't know when. But I'm confident enough that I'm going to get an opportunity to do that again."

Yet Sunday, because of the venue and DEI's history there, would have meant so much more. Smith is a driver who grew up idolizing Dale Earnhardt, who won at Talladega a record 10 times. He grew up a fan of Davey Allison, an Alabama native who won his first race as a rookie on the big 2.66-mile track. He drives for DEI, an operation that made its name by winning on restrictor-plate tracks, because its founder wanted it that way. Sure, it would have been a breakthrough victory for a rookie, and it would have ended a team's 53-race winless streak. But the sheer significance would have dwarfed it all.

"I think of all the other people who have won races [at DEI], the fact that it's been over a year since the company's had a win," Smith said. "You look at how well we all ran Sunday, and that hurts that we all ran so good and still didn't get it. Just Talladega, what it means to Dale Earnhardt Inc. as a whole and to the Earnhardt family, it's a big deal. And to me personally, I grew up a Dale Earnhardt fan. I watched him win races there, I watched him do some incredible things there, and if I could have pulled off one and said, 'Yeah, I was in a Dale Earnhardt Inc. car when I did that,' that would have been really cool."

Instead, it quickly changed to, in Smith's words, "Oh, crap, what happened?" And now the No. 01 team comes to Charlotte, and it's back to reality. Smith is essentially a free-agent driver without a deal for next year. DEI has only one full-time sponsor booked for 2009 after losing Menards to Yates Racing and the U.S. Army to Stewart-Haas. Like a number of other teams, it's working the phones, trying to pull together deals for next season. How might a race victory have helped?

Disallowed dash

• Watch the dramatic finish
• Menzer: Issue is perception
• Cross: NASCAR got it right
• Smack: The 'Dega dilemma
• NASCAR's official statement

"It would have potentially put them into a spotlight of a couple of sponsors. No telling what would have happened past that point," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., who won 17 races at DEI before leaving the team after last season. "It definitely would have impressed a lot of people for Regan's sake, because I think he's a really good guy, and I think he's got a lot of talent. There are a lot of drivers in the sport with jobs that he probably deserves. So there's also the chance it would help DEI nail down some money next year for that team."

John Story, DEI's vice president for motorsports, prefers not to dwell on what might have been. Of course, it would have been nice to notch the team's first race victory since Martin Truex Jr. won at Dover last June. Of course, it would have been nice to extend DEI's mark of winning at least one race every year since 2000, the season the organization expanded beyond a single full-time car. But in this economy, where corporations fearful over market instability have become stingy with marketing dollars, even a victory might not have prompted an outpouring of the kind of money DEI needs.

"I don't think that there are a lot of sponsors out there right now that are looking to spend discretionary dollars in this sport," Story said. "We're at a time of year, every year, where dollars are tough. People typically put together their budgets for the following year. So I don't know if even with a win we'd have seen any miracles. For sure, our phone has rung this week. People are definitely interested in Regan and that team and DEI as a company. We've had some momentum this week, which is a great to see. We've had unsolicited phone calls, people calling congratulating us, other sponsors, people who are not sponsors in the sport, agencies. Even with the fact that we didn't win, we've still had some attention. It hasn't resulted in cashing a check just yet, or a new partnership."

This post-Junior transitional season has been a trying one for DEI, a proud organization that's won 24 times on NASCAR's premier circuit and believes it still belongs among the elite teams in the sport. Smith wants to come back, wants to run well enough the rest of the year to secure a sponsor for the No. 01 car, but as of right now there are no guarantees. The team points to performances of the past three weeks -- Mark Martin finishing fourth at Dover, Truex leading 27 laps at Kansas before suffering a transmission problem, Smith and Menard crossing the finish line first and third at Talladega, even though those results didn't stand -- as evidence that it's on the right track. What would DEI be capable of with full funding?

"I know for a fact that if we show up at Daytona next year with four fully funded cars, we are going to be a force," said Story, whose team shares an engine-building alliance with Richard Childress Racing, which placed all three of its cars in the Chase. "Our teams are as good as any teams in the garage, I am convinced of that. We need to get better. But man for man, I think we're as strong as anybody. ... I know for a fact that when we get this thing funded for next year, DEI will turn heads in 2009. I'm positive of that."

But a lot has to happen first. The team has to secure three primary car sponsors, quite a challenge in this schizophrenic economic climate. There's the matter of replacing Menard, and possibly Smith, if he decides to bolt for a better opportunity. One race victory wouldn't have instantly solved all those issues, which take on added urgency with next season's Daytona 500 looming just four months away.

But it sure would have made trying a little bit sweeter.

"Coming under the checkered flag, this is Regan Smith. If it's a guy who has won seven championships, maybe it's a different discussion," said Earnhardt, who still has many friends over at his old shop. "This guy ain't got a job next year as far as he knows. And he crossed the finish line thinking he might have won a race, and he ends up going home 18th. He's got to climb on a plane to go home finishing 18th. And you can tell them all day long that everybody in the garage knows who won that race, and this, that and the other and try to make him feel better. But it don't help. It's just tough. It was really tough."

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.