Zane Smith will be a household name in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series by the end of 2020 — guaranteed. The 20-year old rookie driver scored his second-consecutive top-five finish in Saturday’s Vet Tix Camping World 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway and he is only getting warmed up.
The race started as Smith rolled from the seventh starting spot, and by the end of Stage 1 on lap 40, Smith had worked his way to fourth.
It looked like the California-native would keep climbing the charts, but on lap 53, Smith was busted for speeding on pit road.
The driver of the No. 21 Chevrolet Silverado would have to drop to the rear of the field.
However, after ending up 19th in Stage 2, Smith and crew chief Kevin ‘Bono’ Manion kept fighting and eventually in the closing laps of the race, they were in position for a solid finish.
However, on the final restart of the race, Smith was stuck in the unfavorable outside line in fourth.
As the race restarted in a green-white-checkered overtime finish, Smith was shuffled to sixth, before he was able to cut back down to the inside.
As Austin Hill failed to hold off Grant Enfinger for the race win, Smith skillfully knifed his way up to fifth.
This solid finish comes on the heels of Smith’s career-best finish (third) in his last outing at Charlotte. In addition to the two-straight top-five finishes, the rookie also has three-consecutive top-10s and has not finished worse than 11th so far this season.
After four races in the 2020 season, Smith sits second in the point standings.
Of course, Smith opened eyes a season ago as he performed well in a 10-race schedule in JR Motorsports’ No. 8 car in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
In that stint, Smith racked up seven top-10 finishes.
The NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series returns to action on June 13th at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Smith will look to keep his impressive rookie campaign going.
