Good Guy Smith May Be Out at Furniture Row, Bad Guy Busch Could Be In

It appears Regan Smith will only climb into his No. 78 car eight more times

It appears that Regan Smith's tenure at Furniture Row Racing will come to an end following the 2012 season. News broke on Friday that Smith has been told to look at other teams and that he would likely be be replaced in his No. 78 car by 2004 champion Kurt Busch.

Smith, who is truly one of the nice guys in this sport, told the media in New Hampshire that "as it stands right now, I don't believe I'm going to be back with these guys next year." When asked about other options he may have, Smith said, "I've been looking for a while already now, but yes, I've been told I can look."

The Cato, New York native, joined Denver, Colorado-based Furniture Row Racing in 2009. They ran around 18 races together and have run the full Sprint Cup Series tour since 2010. Ryan Coniam was the team's crew chief at the start of the '10 campaign, but after 12 races, he was ousted in favor of veteran Pete Rondeau. It turns out that Rondeu, who had previously worked as the crew chief for drivers such as Dale Earnhardt, Jr, was just what was needed to right the ship.

Smith and his team celebrate their win in Darlington last season

Less than a year later, Smith and Rondeau had scored the team's first win in one of the season's biggest races. The team had won the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. This was also Smith's second career win. Let's be honest. He beat Tony Stewart at Talldega in 2008, plain and simple.

This season, Furniture Row brought former Richard Childress Racing crew chief Todd Berrier on board before the Brickyard 400, which really helped the team improve consistency. They scored back-to-back top 10 finishes at the following two races in Pocono and Watkins Glen.

"I think it's something we can build on," Smith said. "I think the tough part for me is that the beginning of the year was a struggle. We had to make some changes to get better as a team and better as an organization. We made those changes, and it's going the right direction... I want to see it through. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like it's going to be the case right now. So somebody's going to get a really good race car next season."

That somebody appears to be Busch. The former champ has been teamed up with James Finch's Phoenix Racing team all season and the two have had nothing but mediocre results to show for their efforts. The team has had to run blank No. 51 Chevys for most of the season due to a severe lack of funding, so Busch has often had to drive harder to overcompensate for the team's second-rate equipment. This has often resulted in Busch wadding up more than a few race cars, which can be a death sentence for a cash-strapped team.

Busch, whoc is mired in 25th in points and been suspended this season for cussing out a media member, has said that while Furniture Row has "shown good interest," so have several other organizations. "There's a handful of contracts sitting on my desk and it's just a matter of going through some detail with each of the teams."

2012 has proved a tough season for Kurt Busch and the 51 team

Furniture Row general manager Joe Garone confirmed he has talked to Busch, but that the short-tempered wheelman has also talked to other teams as well. One of those teams is rumored to be Richard Petty Motorsports.

This move would be extra heartbreaking for Smith because he moved to Denver last year to be closer to his team's shop. "It's a place where I've been for a while. I'm happy here. I like it here. But sometimes change isn't bad either."

While there are not very many options for competitive rides in the Cup Series garage, Smith remains optimistic that he will have a seat when the music stops in January at Daytona testing.

"There's not a lot out there right now," said Smith. "But it's a situation where there is some stuff going on and there will be stuff that turns up later going on, too. You just have to wait and see."

But while he is a nice guy, Smith is also a competitor. And he knows exactly what he wants to do for a living.

"I know I love racing. I intend on being in a race car next year. I know I haven't peaked as a driver yet, so I feel good about where I'm at in my career. We just have to find that right match going forward."