Zane Smith wins NASCAR Camping World Truck Series opener in Daytona

Zane Smith wins NASCAR Camping World Truck Series opener in Daytona

Zane Smith wins NASCAR Camping World Truck Series opener in Daytona

NextEra Energy 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck series began with an amazing finish at the Daytona International Speedway as a 17-car incident brought on caution which prompted the loss of Reigning series champion Ben Rhodes of ThorSport, on overtime.  

22-year-old Californian Zane Smith who drives for Front Row Motorsports on his No. 38 Ford F-150 won under caution. The 100-lap race was extended to 106 laps after the wreck which halted the race for 16 minutes under Red Flag.

Zane Smith actually had a chance to secure the win before the crash as he was leading the pack, with only 2 laps left in the race, but he failed to finish before the caution was out. Zane Smith had to start at P2 in the restart after NASCAR officials gave P1 to Christian Eckes who they deemed to have led the pack before the crash.

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Zane Smith came back stronger as he timed his final pass around Christian Eckes to perfection a nudge from behind by Parker Kligerman also helped him to pull away from his rival. The race didn’t finish under chickened though as another crash on the final lap involving Jason White and Kris Wright prompted NASCAR to award Smith the Victory. This is his fourth career Truck Series victory.

Find out what Zane Smith had to say on his win at Daytona

Zane Smith
Zane Smith

Zane Smith, who actually led only 3 laps in the whole race, acknowledged that the win was a really amazing feeling for him and added that he was concerned if he is going to miss out during the Red Flag. Zane Smith went on to thank his team for the work and effort they put in adding he will try to make this season a record one for him.

“It’s something else, man. This place is its own, I’ll tell you that. My heart hurt during that red flag. I thought we had it,” Zane Smith said.

“Just hats off to this whole group. They’ve put the work in and it’s so damn cool to see when it pays off. Man, this is going to be a really fun year and I’m going to try and make it a record year for myself,” Zane Smith added.

Zane Smith
Zane Smith and Ben Rhodes

Reigning series champion Ben Rhodes , Christian Eckes , Tanner Gray, and  Parker Kligerman completed the top 5 finishing in the respective order. The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will hit Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 4 for the Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200.

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