February 18, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Zane Smith parlays new opportunity with Front Row into victory at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Zane Smith celebrated his coming out party with Front Row Motorsports by winning the Next Era Energy 250 at Daytona International Speedway.

Smith, 21, survived a 17-truck melee coming to the initial white flag. After the dust settled, he lined up second for overtime. 

With a push from Parker Kligerman, Smith vaulted to the lead and held the point for his fourth career win in the Camping World Truck Series.

“So damn cool for Love’s to be back in Victory Lane,” Smith said of his new sponsor. “What a cool way to start the year! Never did I think I’d be in Victory Lane at Daytona.”

Ben Rhodes passed Christian Eckes for second at the line. Tanner Gray and Kligerman rounded out the top five.

“I felt like we were in a good position there,” Eckes said. “I felt like I was kind of a sitting duck behind the leader.”

Ty Majeski led the field to green for the Craftsman Truck Series season-opener. While the first two stages were rather tame—with John Hunter Nemechek taking the green-white-checkered flags at the end of both segments—the action picked up over the final 54 laps. 

Corey Heim slid up into Majeski on Lap 62 and damaged the No. 66 Toyota. Two laps later, Jack Wood’s No. 25 Chevrolet turned right into the wall on the backstretch to ignite the third caution. Nemechek led the leaders in a conga-line to the yellow. Colby Howard grabbed the lead on the restart but the point exchanged hands between him, Tyler Ankrum, and Nemechek--until Kris Wright tagged Jason White coming into Turn 4 to trigger the fifth caution on Lap 85.

Defending racer winner/truck champion Rhodes snagged the lead when the race returned to green on Lap 90. Six laps later, Eckes took command. Coming to the white flag, Nemechek, who was running in the top-five, turned third-place Ankrum into the field and sent the race into overtime. 

“It felt like I got a really good push from the 4 (John Hunter Nemechek) and I don’t know if it was the 99 (Rhodes) or 98 (Eckes) in front of me but I was going to take him three-wide to the top,” Ankrum said. “I just got really loose. It’s so hard. We were all pushing so hard. It was coming to one (lap) to go. 

“It sucks, but our LIUNA! Toyota Tundra TRD Pro was really quick tonight so I’m really happy with that. Happy to be with a new team and Toyota and I’m ready to go pound the ground for the rest of the season.”

Eighteen trucks were involved in the wreck on the front stretch. The truckers that could continue, rolled around to Turn 4 where NASCAR waved the red flag for 15 minutes. 

Kligerman’s assist enabled Smith to seize the lead. He held on through the green-white-checkered flag to score the win in the No. 38 Love’s Travel Stop Ford as White and Wright wrecked again behind the leader. Jesse Little, Majeski, Danny Bohn, Carson Hocevar and Matt DiBenedetto completed the top 10.

“This is something else,” Smith said. “This place is its own, I’ll tell you that. Man, literally my heart hurt during that late red flag. I thought we had (the win). Man, hats off to this whole group. They really put the work in and it’s so damn cool to see it when it pays off.  

“Man, this is going to be a really fun year. I’m going to try to make it a record year for myself. How cool is this?”