In hindsight, June 30, 2024, may go down as the most important day of Zane Smith’s NASCAR career.
In one of the wildest races in the modern era of NASCAR, Joey Logano navigated five overtime restarts at Nashville and somehow had enough fuel to cross the finish line first and earn a win that eventually catapulted him to a third Cup Series championship.
The man who finished second to Logano on that summer Tennessee evening was Smith, who notched his first top-10 finish of his rookie season.
Up to that point, Smith’s 2024 season with Spire Motorsports had been tumultuous. Smith and the No. 71 team had only accrued four top-20 finishes through the first 18 races of the season, though finishes of 19th at Gateway and 16th at Sonoma to begin the month of June suggested improvement was on the way.
Smith’s runner-up finish at Nashville ended up spurring an incredible turnaround for the rookie driver. Once an afterthought on Sunday afternoon, the Huntington Beach, Calif., native became a fixture in the top-20 for the rest of the season. Over the season’s final 18 events, Smith finished inside the top-20 10 times, with four of those being top-10 finishes. At Watkins Glen, Smith even brought home another top-five finish.
The end result of 2024 was a year in which Smith, who was last in points among full-time drivers after race 21 at Pocono, climbed up as high as 28th in points before finishing in 30th.
The bad news? Smith had been released from his development deal with Trackhouse Racing earlier in the year, and his 2025 plans were unknown.
Enter Bob Jenkins and Front Row Motorsports, who were accustomed to working with Smith. As the pilot of FRM’s No. 38 Ford F-150 in the Truck Series in 2022 and 2023, Smith won six races, made two playoff appearances and won the 2022 championship.
On Thursday, one of the worst-kept secrets in the NASCAR garage became public — Smith will return to Front Row in 2025, but this time as a Cup Series driver.
Smith will pilot the No. 38 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for the team in 2025, joining a young core of drivers who could sneak up on the competition.
Smith, 25, will join third-year driver Noah Gragson, 26, and fourth-year driver Todd Gilliland, 24, at an organization built for both the present and the future.
While Front Row’s future seems extremely promising as a whole, the individual future for Smith couldn’t be in a better place.
Smith has plenty of momentum behind him to carry into 2025, and working with familiar faces and a team on the up-and-up certainly won’t hurt.
Smith has proved his ability to run up front and not be daunted by the moment, and his playoff experience and championship pedigree from his Truck Series tenure are invaluable assets.
As an organization, Front Row Motorsports is in a better spot than ever to provide necessary assets to young drivers looking to break into victory lane. FRM isn’t a team with the capabilities to compete for a championship, but their steady strides make it seem very possible for at least one of their cars to earn a playoff spot.
It’s often said that first chances are rare in racing, and second chances are rarer still.
Time will decide what Smith does with his second chance, but if he performs to his potential, there’s no reason he couldn’t be the man to lead Front Row Motorsports to the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs in 2025.
–Samuel Stubbs, Field Level Media
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