Zane Smith started out his tenure with Front Row Motorsports with a victory in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway.
Smith was battling for the lead in the No. 38 Ford coming to the white flag when a massive crash was triggered when Tyler Ankrum was spun by John Hunter Nemechek as Smith was fighting Christian Eckes for the lead.
The caution triggered an overtime restart after a lengthy red flag to clean up the tri-oval of the 2.5-mile superspeedway. Smith took the lead on the restart despite pressure from 2021 Camping World Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes and his Thorsport Racing teammate, Eckes.
“Something else, man,” Smith told FS1’s Jamie Howe. “My heart hurt during that red flag. I thought we had it. Hats off to this whole group. They really put the work in.”
The wreck near the end of regulation involved 18 trucks and took out a number of drivers including: Grant Enfinger, Colby Howard and Matt Crafton.
Nemechek, who was caught up in the big crash with two laps to go, earned victories in both stages in the No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota. Ty Majeski led the first 19 laps of the race, his first career laps led in the Camping World Truck Series, before Nemechek took the lead away in Stage 1.
Rhodes finished second, followed by Eckes, Tanner Gray and Parker Kligerman in the top five. Carson Hocevar, Jesse Little, Majeski, Danny Bohn and Matt DiBenedetto rounded out the top 10.
The Camping World Truck Series will be back in action on March 4 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with the Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 (9 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
