for 2008 (only six starts). He then moved to the Craftsman Truck series to drive the No. 47 for Morgan-Dollar Motorsports for starting at O'Reilly Raceway Park. Smith returned to the No. 01 for 2008 as its sole driver, with Martin moving over to the No. 8. The team operated with little to no sponsorship (Principal Financial Group was the main sponsor), but managed to stay in business the entire season. Smith lost out his first win at Talladega Superspeedway because on the final lap, in the trioval, he passed Tony Stewart for first place, but it was announced that Smith went below the yellow line when he made the pass; the victory was given to Stewart. Smith said that he was pushed down by Stewart. Despite finishing the season with no top ten finishes in 34 races (he was removed for both road course races), Smith won the 2008 Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year award, beating out Sam Hornish Jr. He became the first rookie driver in Sprint Cup history to finish every race entered in his rookie season. 2009–2010 After the 2008 season, DEI shut down the No. 01 after merging with Chip Ganassi Racing's NASCAR operation and Smith was released. On January 14, 2009, he signed with Furniture Row Racing to drive the No. 78 for its part-time 2009 slate of races. He made eighteen of twenty attempts with the team, and was hired to drive for the team full-time in 2010, with the team being offered Richard Childress Racing chassis and Hendrick Motorsports engines. In 2010, he did not score any top tens. His best finish was twelfth (twice) but still finished 28th in the point standings, his best of his career. The team changed engine providers, becoming a user of Earnhardt-Childress Racing Technologies (a joint venture of his former DEI team and Childress Racing) engines for the 2011 season, with Stewart-Haas Racing offering pit crews. 2011–2013 At the 2011 Daytona 500, Smith returned to the No. 78 car. Smith finished seventh after crashing in the final laps while battling for the lead. Although disappointing, he was able to come back and finish seventh in the first top ten finish of his Cup Series career and for Furniture Row Racing. On May 7, 2011, at the Showtime Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Smith won his first Sprint Cup race, holding off Carl Edwards at the