Zane Smith continues to rebound nicely in his sophomore season since returning to Front Row Motorsports and scoring a ninth-place finish in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway.
RELATED: NASCAR Cup Series Phoenix Race Results | Race Recap
The 2022 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series champion qualified his No. 38 Aaron’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse in the 26th starting spot alongside Ty Dillon for the 312-lap, 312-mile-long sprint to the finish at the one-mile dogleg oval for the first traditional oval of the 2025 campaign.
Smith avoided several incidents early in Stage 1 as the 25-year-old hovered around P19-20 for the majority of the 60-lap opening stage and would cross the stripe officially in the 19th running position to close out Stage 1.
Smith dropped back to 22nd when the green flag dropped once again for the beginning of Stage 2, firing off from the 11th row alongside Front Row Motorsports teammate of Todd Gilliland.
Unfortunately, Smith fell back to as far as 30th on the restart and began his climb back through the field until the next caution of the race flew on Lap 92.
The Huntingdon Beach, California native leapfrogged a majority of cars on pit road, as they No. 38 Ford Mustang Dark Horse elected to take just right-side tires, putting Smith inside the top 15 for the first time on the day.
Smith fell several positions and would cross the stripe in 18th as Stage 2 concluded.
The driver of the No.38 restarted in 18th for the final 117 lap dash to finish off Sunday afternoon’s event.
Smith settled comfortably into the 20th position and drove all the way up into 16th when the caution came out yet again with 44 laps remaining.
Smith regrouped during his pit stop to gain two spots on pit road, putting the No. 38 into contention for a top 10.
Smith finally cracked the top 10 with under 20 laps to go before the final caution of the race came out for Ty Gibbs, making heavy contact with the outside SAFER barrier due to a brake rotor failure, putting the field all back together for NASCAR overtime.
The driver of the No. 38 was able to restart in 10th, following in tow of Alex Bowman as the field circled around to the white flag, Smith would hold his ground over Chase Elliott, scoring his best finish of the season in ninth-place.
“Man, since practice, I knew I had a really good Mustang,” Smith said in a post-race interview after his strong finish.
“In qualifying, I feel like we all kind of missed it at FRM but I knew our Fords were really good on the long run and it paid off here. It was a lot of fun today. I fought a couple of mistakes throughout the day, but it is really cool to get Aaron’s a good run in my debut with them. Top 10 finishes are always great. It is something to build on and a good track to be good at. I am just happy with the performance all weekend, honestly.”
Smith also noted his enjoyment regarding the use of option tires provided by Goodyear that really brought out the game of strategy for which set of tires were needed to be used in particular scenarios throughout Sunday’s competition.
“Yeah, they are a lot of fun and it made it probably the most fun Phoenix race I feel like I have been to. Just a good weekend for us and something to build off of, and I am ready for this year.”
Smith now sits 26th in the NASCAR Cup Series standings heading into next weekend’s event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the running of the Pennzoil 400.
