TALLADEGA, Ala. -- They returned to the scene this weekend, one still trying to deal with the past while the other continued to celebrate and defend it.

Welcome back to Talladega Superspeedway, guys.

Relive the drama

It will go down as one of the more memorable finishes in NASCAR history. The rookie (Regan Smith) and the champion (Tony Stewart) battle to the checkers in a controversial finish.

• The final lap: Smoke vs. Smith
• Smith thought the win was his

The last time the Cup Series visited, a 500-mile race came down to the final inches on the last of 188 laps. And even then, confusion reigned after Tony Stewart and Regan Smith darted past the start-finish line nearly side-by-side at speeds approaching 200 miles per hour.

Smith, then a rookie driving the No. 01 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc., was certain he had just won his first Cup race. He had clearly surged past Stewart at the line.

"The first two things that crossed my mind were: man, this is really cool for DEI; and two, Davey [Allison] won his first race here as a rookie, too," said Smith, a huge Davey Allison fan growing up.

But wait a minute. Stewart, driving a No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, was pretty sure he had won, too. He and crew chief Greg Zipadelli were convinced that Smith had gone below the yellow "out of bounds" line to make the pass, therefore making it illegal and leaving Stewart the victor.

"The rule is the rule," Stewart said. "He committed himself to going to the bottom and I saw that -- and I knew that if I got to the yellow line before he did, there was no way that he could go by."

Not legally, anyway. Smith figured he had been forced below the yellow line by Stewart blocking him and that he had no choice but to go low or risk wrecking himself, Stewart and maybe half of the field behind them. Therefore, he reasoned in his mind that the pass was legit.

Officials from NASCAR ultimately agreed with Stewart, but not before Smith made it three-quarters of the way back around the 2.66-mile track believing he had still registered the first win of his career in historic fashion.

"All the way up to Turn 3, there were guys coming up and door-slammin' me and giving me thumbs-up. And I've got my arm out the window, all pumped up and everything like that. So that was all the way through Turn 3," Smith said.

"But then when I came off Turn 4, it all changed."

“

The last image I have of this place was what happened on the front straightaway. Well, I want to get that out of my mind. I want to have another fresh image that I can think about when I go home at night.

”

-- REGAN SMITH

Suddenly, Smith couldn't believe his eyes -- or his ears, as crew chief Dan Stillman came on the car radio and told him the victory he thought he had secured was in serious question.

"I can't remember if I saw Tony go straight down pit road or Dan came on the radio and said something first," Smith said. "But Dan came on and said something like, 'Well, just go down pit road and we'll figure it all out.' At that point, I was like, 'What???!!!' And I had a few other choice words that I can't repeat, but I kind of had an idea of what was going on at that point.

"It still doesn't take away from how we ran that day, and how the company ran that day. You can't totally disregard that."

That's Smith, always trying to find the positive in everything. He noted that Paul Menard, then his DEI teammate, was credited with second place when NASCAR bumped him all the way down to 18th for going below the yellow line.

"At that point, though, after you cross the line and think you're heading to the front stretch to do burnouts and they say, 'Oh, no, you're not first,' it honestly didn't matter to me [that he had been dropped from second to 18th]," Smith said. "The only thing about second that entered my mind was that the rookie points were still pretty close at that point, and it would have been nice to have the extra points for that. But you don't really think about it much. You throw that out in the end. It's just a stat.

"I guess second place looks nice in the record books and all that. But then again, the last time I looked in any of the record books, I never checked to see who finished second in anything."

It is six months later, and much has changed.

Though he did go on to earn rookie of the year honors, Smith is no longer employed by DEI. In fact, DEI as it was then no longer exists -- having merged last offseason with Chip Ganassi Racing to become Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. Smith now drives for a part-time Cup operation, Furniture Row Racing, although it is one that is highly respected, has run full-time schedules in the past and hopes to again in the near future.

"There was some frustration there at the end of last year -- but at the same time, say I did have a ride there this year, say I was still at DEI, what position would I be in right now?" Smith said. "That's something that I sit back and look at every day of the week. And I say, 'Man, I'm the luckiest man in the world.' We're adding races just about every week, it seems like.

"I'm a glass is half-full kind of guy anyway, so I sit back and think I'm pretty fortunate this year."

For the ultimate optimist, the half-full theory was put to a stern test in the immediate aftermath of last fall's Talladega disappointment.

"That one was tough. I would say for about four or five days, the glass was pretty empty after that," Smith admitted.

"It wasn't a matter of being mad or anything like that. It was just disappointment. Because here you are thinking, 'Man, I just won my first race.' There were so many parallels that were cool about that. It was the last race Dale [Earnhardt] won. Obviously we knew the situation where DEI was struggling to secure sponsors for this year. Would that have gotten any sponsors or saved anything like that? I don't know. Would it have changed anything? You never know.

"But with that being said, this place means a lot to that company anyway -- and then for me personally, I grew up a huge Davey Allison fan. He won his first race here as a rookie. And I'm close to that family, so coming down here is special for me anyway. If I could have pulled that off, that would have been really cool."

Life has changed for Stewart since then as well. Stewart no longer drives a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, having left JGR at the end of last season to form his own Chevrolet-backed team at Stewart-Haas Racing.

Yet the pair of drivers will be forever intertwined in history for providing one of the most controversial, most memorable finishes at a track that frequently provides exciting ones. Stewart said the way Smith handled himself in the aftermath greatly impressed him.

"I saw him shortly after when we both participated in a charity event," Stewart said. "Through this whole thing, I think Regan has been awesome. The bad thing for him is it's going to get put back in his face this weekend, which is unfortunate."

Smith didn't seem to mind too much. What he really wants, though, is a chance to get back on the track Sunday to create some new memories at the Talladega track.

"Personally, I've let it go," said Smith, who had to qualify for this Sunday's event on speed and did so Saturday, running a top lap of 187.897 miles per hour that placed him sixth on the starting grid. "I don't go back and look at it on tape. I will say there probably have not been but a couple of days since then that haven't gone by -- and I must have been in a drunken stupor on those -- when I haven't thought about it at least. It's definitely something I've thought about a lot since it happened.

"The main thing for me is getting back on the race track. I can't wait to get out there Sunday."

When he does, he will be looking for a different result this time. He is by far a long shot to win or even be in position to challenge for the win again at the end, but he still holds out hope in his half-full glass.

"The last image I have of this place was what happened on the front straightaway. Well, I want to get that out of my mind. I want to have another fresh image that I can think about when I go home at night," Smith said.

"We've got a really good speedway program. ... I feel like we're going to have a strong race car. You never know. Maybe Sunday I could get some sweet redemption and really put it out of my mind."