Zane Smith Overcomes Final Stage Speeding Penalty for Confidence-Building Top-10
As a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion and highly-rated prospect, Zane Smith had quite a bit of hype to live up to entering his rookie campaign in the NASCAR Cup Series.
To kick off the 2024 season, just about everything was brand-new. The third entry for Spire Motorsports (No. 71), Stephen Doran calling his first races as a NASCAR Cup Series crew chief, and Zane Smith, a fresh-faced rookie with only nine starts under his belt at NASCAR's top-level.
That newness reared its ugly head at the start of the year, and despite some glimmers of hope -- like Texas in April, where Smith spent a significant portion of the race running around the top-10 -- the results weren't coming through, as hoped.
It wasn't until June, when Smith recorded a pair of top-20 finishes at WWT Raceway and Sonoma Raceway, and then ended the month by finishing runner-up (and nearly winning) in quintuple overtime at Nashville Superspeedway , beginning the turning of tides for Spire Motorsports and the No. 71 team.
Since Nashville, the 25-year-old driver has laid down a top-20 finish at the Chicago Street Course, a ninth-place qualifying run at Pocono, and another top-20 at Indianapolis after spending time inside the top-five.
Monday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway was a continuation of a newfound sense experience and confidence for Smith, after the driver of the No. 71 was able to rebound from a speeding penalty in the race’s final stage to finish seventh.
Smith and first-year crew chief Stephen Doran had played the strategy just right, utilizing a caution on Lap 110 to make their pit stop, allowing them to leapfrog any drivers who chose to stay on the racetrack for stage points.
The Huntington Beach, California-native had climbed as high as 12th-place with this strategy, before coming down pit road under a caution flag 20 laps into the final stage, making what was going to be his second-to-last stop of the event.
Those plans were thwarted by a speeding penalty at Lap 140, just the fourth of the season for Smith and the first since Talladega Superspeedway in April.
“It was definitely a good recovery,” Smith said post-race. “I’m still mad at myself after we sped on pit road, once we finally had some good track position. I knew that we were making gains on our Chevrolet.”
Having improved upon his Focused Health-sponsored Chevrolet throughout the entire event, Smith had decent speed and showcased that in the final 60 laps of Monday’s 200-lap contest, driving through traffic to contend once again for a top 15 finish.
“Once we had to start at the back, I was able to get through a lot of them right away. I felt like we learned a lot there getting back through the field, and we made our car even better. That last restart, I kind of learned something from being back there earlier in the race and was able to apply that to that last restart.”
When the race’s final restart, a second attempt at NASCAR Overtime, arrived, Smith looked like a veteran Cup Series driver, attacking the mid-pack and picking up five positions in two laps, moving from 12th to seventh.
“I was able to get a few rows and maintain, and then obviously had help from the No. 99 with a push to get us seventh there at the line. That was much appreciated,” Smith added. “It’s been a long weekend, but all-in-all, it was a great day with our No. 71 Focused Health Chevrolet. We’ll take the momentum and head to Daytona.”
For a driver like Smith, who hasn’t yet announced his 2025 NASCAR plans, top-10 runs at Michigan and Nashville will certainly instill confidence in those making the hard-hitting decisions.
Although a NASCAR Cup Series post-season berth seems unlikely, Smith will be to use the final 10 weeks of the year to show that runs like Monday aren’t a fluke, but rather an indicator of his true potential
JOSEPH SRIGLEY