Zane Smith on tough 2024: ‘People forget this is a brand new team’

Rookies often have it tough in the NASCAR Cup Series but Zane Smith has arguably had it the toughest of any rookie in recent memory.

A 13th-place finish — the best of all rookies — in the season-opening Daytona 500 seemed to get the new Spire Motorsports team’s hopes up.

Those hopes are finally getting realized four months later. Smith finished 19th at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and 16th at Sonoma Raceway. It was his first streak of Top-20 finishes all season.

“The past couple weeks have been really good for us. And people, I think have forgotten the fact that this is a brand new team that has been essentially assemble. So it’s going to take those growing pains. And we experienced that, especially in the beginning half of the year,” Smith said.

Before the real season could really begin at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, an incident at Atlanta pushed him to 35th after finishing 75 of 260 laps. When the real season started, an incident derailed it on lap 11 of 267 at Las Vegas. He finished 36th, 13 laps down.

In the 11 races that followed, there were only three finishes better than 29th: 19th at Circuit of the Americas, 24th at Dover, 26th at Texas.

The finish at World Wide Technology Raceway was his first Top-20 finish this season on a regular oval. The Sonoma finish affirmed his solid run at COTA.

“We’re finally kind of hitting on some things and just, I think gelling a little bit better. And we’re clicking off some more solid runs,” Smith said.

It’s a step forward for a team that started with a charter purchase, a deal with Trackhouse Racing to get Smith and another rookie.

Stephen Doran is no rookie on the pit box. Doran has served as an engineer for drivers like Kevin Harvick. However, 2024 marks his first full-time season ever in the lead role as crew chief.

“People I think often lose sight of rookie in the Cup Series for one and for two just how competitive and how hard the Cup Series is,” Smith said. “There are no longer any bad cars. So it’s really tough right now. And it’s crazy how close everyone is and and we’re just trying to honestly focus on ourselves continue these solid runs. And that’s all we could ask for.”

Smith has been through this before. A year before winning the 2022 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship with Front Row Motorsports, he left Phoenix Raceway with his head hung low unsure if he would even race in 2022.

Smith says it has made him stronger. What ups his confidence is that deal with Trackhouse Racing. While he won’t be back with Spire Motorsports next year, he knows he has a home next year.

“I signed a contract to where I know what I’m doing for the next couple of years and that’s to be a part of Trackhouse. So I’m excited for my future with them. I’d say myself and in Trackhouse in the past couple of weeks have also shown some good speed. So they’re happy to see when the summer months are coming around, we’re finding some speed,” Smith said.

Smith comes to Iowa Speedway with some momentum. And with past experience that is relatively recent.

Smith will be one of eight drivers in the field Sunday who also raced in the Xfinity Series in July 2019, the final NASCAR national series race to date before this weekend.

In that race, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, John Hunter Nemechek, Noah Gragson and Tyler Reddick finished in the Top-5. Then, Justin Haley and Zane Smith finished eighth and ninth while Austin Cindric started eighth but finished 37th after a crash ended his day after 43 laps.

Smith was in just his eighth NASCAR national series that day he finished ninth. It came after starting third and finishing fifth to Bell just a month before at Iowa Speedway.

In only his fifth start as well.

“It’s crazy, actually, like re-watching those races from that long ago,” Smith said. “I had no idea what I was doing. I was so inexperienced. And so it’s hard to watch races back when you’re that inexperienced just wishing you could go back to that day, knowing what you know now.”

Smith said he still had a blast there, likening the track to a mix of a mile-and-a-half and a short track.

After Iowa Speedway, Smith is looking forward to revisiting tracks like Richmond and Darlington. He is also excited for some of the road course races, like Chicago.

He also has a few others circled that you may not expect.

“I’ve never turned a lap at Loudon [New Hampshire Motor Speedway]. I’ve never been there. So, first time in a Cup car should be interesting but we’re going to attack it like any other weekend,” Smith said. “I know Nashville is coming up Nashville has always been a great track for me. Iowa is kinda the oddball for me.”

(Editor’s Note: A topic of fierce debate, Smith said Iowa Speedway is a short track. He argued that because the Cup Series uses the short-track package there.)